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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/dec/13/faith-schools-british-values-ofsted
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| What are British values? And are faith schools really undermining them? | What are British values? And are faith schools really undermining them? |
| (about 1 month later) | |
| It was in the green room at the BBC that I first experienced the antipathy that faith schools inspire. Just as I was about to talk about religion on the Today programme, and had explained this to an eminent QC waiting to speak on another issue, he took this as a cue to let rip about how awful faith schools were and how divisive. Then, he added, getting angrier, “They wouldn’t give my daughter a place.” | It was in the green room at the BBC that I first experienced the antipathy that faith schools inspire. Just as I was about to talk about religion on the Today programme, and had explained this to an eminent QC waiting to speak on another issue, he took this as a cue to let rip about how awful faith schools were and how divisive. Then, he added, getting angrier, “They wouldn’t give my daughter a place.” |
| This complaint – I’m opposed to them but I want my kids to go there – is one of the critiques one hears often about faith schools. People, while disliking them, find them desirable because they know that some are highly successful. And it’s often their ethos that is responsible. | This complaint – I’m opposed to them but I want my kids to go there – is one of the critiques one hears often about faith schools. People, while disliking them, find them desirable because they know that some are highly successful. And it’s often their ethos that is responsible. |
| The opponents of faith schools regularly talk of them as if they are all alike, all as bad as one another | The opponents of faith schools regularly talk of them as if they are all alike, all as bad as one another |
| Ethos is what Ofsted’s newly published annual report has targeted. It highlights the school inspectorate’s deep concerns that some faith schools are “spreading beliefs that clash with British values” and that they could undermine tolerance and respect. | Ethos is what Ofsted’s newly published annual report has targeted. It highlights the school inspectorate’s deep concerns that some faith schools are “spreading beliefs that clash with British values” and that they could undermine tolerance and respect. |
| This criticism has been leapt upon by opponents of faith schools, such as the Accord Coalition, to bolster the case for all state schools to be inclusive. In other words, selective faith schools should be scrapped. | This criticism has been leapt upon by opponents of faith schools, such as the Accord Coalition, to bolster the case for all state schools to be inclusive. In other words, selective faith schools should be scrapped. |
| This is the problem with the arguments against faith schools: so often their opponents talk of them as if they are all alike, all as bad as one another. If a report emerges about poor teaching, it is used by campaigners to suggest all teaching in all faith schools is poor. If another focuses on them being elitist, they are all damned as elitist. The reality is far more complex, as it is with all schools. | This is the problem with the arguments against faith schools: so often their opponents talk of them as if they are all alike, all as bad as one another. If a report emerges about poor teaching, it is used by campaigners to suggest all teaching in all faith schools is poor. If another focuses on them being elitist, they are all damned as elitist. The reality is far more complex, as it is with all schools. |
| This latest Ofsted report delves into particularly murky waters. It offers no explanation of what it means by “fundamental British values”. If a school is actively encouraging children to not respect the rule of law or is sowing the seeds of hatred of others, leading to criminal activity, then there is clearly a problem and Ofsted is right to raise it. | This latest Ofsted report delves into particularly murky waters. It offers no explanation of what it means by “fundamental British values”. If a school is actively encouraging children to not respect the rule of law or is sowing the seeds of hatred of others, leading to criminal activity, then there is clearly a problem and Ofsted is right to raise it. |
| If a school suggests that girls are inferior to boys and prevents them from learning, say, sciences, or applying to university, then it’s apparent that this is a problem. It contravenes the most basic tenets of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on dignity and equality. | If a school suggests that girls are inferior to boys and prevents them from learning, say, sciences, or applying to university, then it’s apparent that this is a problem. It contravenes the most basic tenets of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on dignity and equality. |
| But if Ofsted doesn’t articulate what it means by fundamental British values, plenty of faith schools will be targeted by opponents as failing on this issue. Take for instance, a faith school that teaches the wrongness of abortion – although it has been legal for 50 years in this country. Some might argue that makes abortion a British value. Or what if a Catholic school offered Pope Francis’s teaching that nuclear disarmament is a moral imperative – not a value espoused by Britain, given its track record on holding such weapons? | But if Ofsted doesn’t articulate what it means by fundamental British values, plenty of faith schools will be targeted by opponents as failing on this issue. Take for instance, a faith school that teaches the wrongness of abortion – although it has been legal for 50 years in this country. Some might argue that makes abortion a British value. Or what if a Catholic school offered Pope Francis’s teaching that nuclear disarmament is a moral imperative – not a value espoused by Britain, given its track record on holding such weapons? |
| Should such schools be damned for their ethics? Or should they be commended for teaching RE at GCSE, where pupils will study ethical debates of this nature? And praised for offering different perspectives from most schools, thus being part of the pluralism on which this country has prided itself? | Should such schools be damned for their ethics? Or should they be commended for teaching RE at GCSE, where pupils will study ethical debates of this nature? And praised for offering different perspectives from most schools, thus being part of the pluralism on which this country has prided itself? |
| Ofsted’s report also takes faith schools to task over the quality of their education, finding a particular problem in the independent sector. This is novel: all too often faith schools are criticised for letting middle-class parents, under cover of religious belief, acquire an elite education for their children. The truth is that some faith schools need to shape up, while others are among the very best and oversubscribed, especially in London. And they often make a difference to children in very tough neighbourhoods. | Ofsted’s report also takes faith schools to task over the quality of their education, finding a particular problem in the independent sector. This is novel: all too often faith schools are criticised for letting middle-class parents, under cover of religious belief, acquire an elite education for their children. The truth is that some faith schools need to shape up, while others are among the very best and oversubscribed, especially in London. And they often make a difference to children in very tough neighbourhoods. |
| Targeting faith schools wholesale can have unintended consequences. The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition introduced a mandatory cap on the intake of believers to all new faith schools, requiring that a new institution would take 50% of its pupils from outside its faith population. The Catholic church stopped building new schools, because the policy broke its canon law, forbidding it from turning away students based on their Catholic faith. | Targeting faith schools wholesale can have unintended consequences. The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition introduced a mandatory cap on the intake of believers to all new faith schools, requiring that a new institution would take 50% of its pupils from outside its faith population. The Catholic church stopped building new schools, because the policy broke its canon law, forbidding it from turning away students based on their Catholic faith. |
| When Theresa May became prime minister, she promised to overturn the policy, with No 10 saying it had been created to make faith schools more diverse but had failed because Catholic schools were more ethnically diverse than others, as well as more successful. Since May lost her majority, this U-turn appears to have been shunted to one side, with education secretary Justine Greening said to have indicated she doesn’t think it a priority. | When Theresa May became prime minister, she promised to overturn the policy, with No 10 saying it had been created to make faith schools more diverse but had failed because Catholic schools were more ethnically diverse than others, as well as more successful. Since May lost her majority, this U-turn appears to have been shunted to one side, with education secretary Justine Greening said to have indicated she doesn’t think it a priority. |
| But faith schools are a priority – for the thousands who attend them, for the thousands who want to do so, for those critics who rightly want to weed out the worst performers. And especially for the parents who want the freedom to choose these schools for their children. Now, that freedom is surely a fundamental British value. Ofsted, take note. | But faith schools are a priority – for the thousands who attend them, for the thousands who want to do so, for those critics who rightly want to weed out the worst performers. And especially for the parents who want the freedom to choose these schools for their children. Now, that freedom is surely a fundamental British value. Ofsted, take note. |
| • Catherine Pepinster is a writer on religious affairs | • Catherine Pepinster is a writer on religious affairs |
| Faith schools | Faith schools |
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| Ofsted | Ofsted |
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