This article appears in the Witness section of the spring 2020 issue of the New Humanist. Subscribe today.
Faith schools make up a third of all state-funded schools in England and Wales. On top of this, schools with a religious character of some kind make up a majority of private schools in England and Wales. This has long been a concern for education campaigners and humanist groups, because private schools are not required to meet the same standards as state-funded schools and are subject to fewer rigorous inspections. As a result, indepedent schools have greater freedom to impose a religious ethos onto, for instance, science or sex education curricula.
These are not abstract anxieties. According to Ofsted’s Annual Report for 2018/19, which was published in January, 40 per cent of independent faith schools were graded “inadequate” or “requires improvement” in their last inspection. The figure for private schools without a religious character was just 20 per cent. Ofsted inspections of independent Jewish and Muslim schools have previously uncovered evidence of inadequate safeguarding, physical punishment by teachers – including pinching, smacking and slapping – and use of texts promoting sexist and homophobic attitudes. Ofsted has raised concerns about compliance with the Equality Act in the context of LGBT education. There have also been reports of schools using loopholes around the parental right to withdraw a child from sex education as an excuse to avoid teaching it at all.
Humanists UK has long campaigned for better regulation of faith schools, in both the state and private sector. “It is extremely concerning that independent faith schools are failing to comply with even basic standards of ensuring a good education for children,” said their education campaigns manager Ruth Wareham. “While it is good to know that Ofsted is picking up on these issues, progress simply isn’t fast enough.”
Every child is entitled to a proper education, held in a safe and intellectually open environment. Schools that cannot deliver those things should be put under serious scrutiny – and, if necessary, reformed or closed down.