Proposals from the Church of England to reduce religious discrimination in school admissions is welcome but does not go far enough, the British Humanist Association has stated. The BHA was responding to comments from the Rt Revd John Pritchard, Bishop of Oxford, who said that admissions policies favouring religious children should be changed, limiting discrimination to 10% of admissions from the current permission to discriminate on all places.
BHA Chief Executive Andrew Copson stated: ‘Any reduction in discrimination has to be welcomed but it remains outrageous that 100% publicly funded schools are permitted to discriminate against children and parents on grounds of religion at all. We would encourage all people within the Church of England who believe in social justice, equality and fair access to public services to seek a total end to discrimination in their schools, on other religious groups to do the same, and on the government to end its support of religiously selective and segregated education at the public expense.’
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For further comment or information, contact Andrew Copson at andrew@humanists.uk or 020 3675 0959.
The Bishop of Oxford made his comments to the Times Educational Supplement (in print tomorrow, 22/04/11) http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6078734
The British Humanist Association is the national charity working on behalf of ethically concerned, non-religious people in the UK. It is the largest organisation in the UK campaigning for an end to religious privilege and to discrimination based on religion or belief, and for a secular state.