In response to a House of Commons Education Committee inquiry on multi-academy trusts (MATs) in England, the British Humanist Association (BHA) has repeated its concerns about the rise of ‘faith ethos’ academies, and also warned that the conversion of over two thousand local authority maintained ‘faith’ schools into church-run academies could lead to an unprecedented increase in the number of school places subject to religiously discriminative selection criteria. Such schools will also be subject to a far greater level of religious influence in their governance as part of this process, the BHA states.
‘Faith ethos’ academies are academies and free schools that despite not being formally designated with a religious character, are nonetheless run by an organisation with a religious ethos. As such, that organisation is entitled to exert control in a range of areas on the basis of their religion, including religiously selecting governors, using a religious genuine occupational requirement in appointing senior staff, and putting a religious slant on various aspects of school life, including sex and relationships education and assemblies.
Concerningly, a school or academy can gain a ‘faith ethos’ at any time simply through a change in ownership or, when converting from being a local authority maintained school, by way of the trust that sponsors it having a religious character or ethos. The latter of these two scenarios is of particular concern in view of the recent proposals to require all schools to become academies, and examples of religious organisations ‘taking over’ schools with no religious character are already starting to appear.
Earlier this year, for instance, it was revealed that a Church of England-led Academy trust in Newcastle will assume control of four schools with no religious character if proposals go ahead for them to merge with a single voluntary-aided Church of England primary school. The merge means that the local Diocese will fill a majority of the seats on the board of the newly-created ‘mixed MAT’, despite there being only one ‘faith’ school in the trust. Furthermore, just last year it was announced that the Tauheedul Education Trust, which runs a number of Muslim Academies around the country, will gain control over three community secondary schools in Blackpool and Bradford that were ordered to convert to academies. Both situations have led to significant local opposition.
The BHA’s response also highlights the fact that ‘faith’ schools whose admission arrangements are currently set by the local authority will gain the freedom to make their own arrangements after they convert to academies. The vast majority of local authorities do not allow these schools to employ religious selection criteria in their admissions, but there are no protections in place to prevent them from doing so as academies, meaning that by 2022 – the deadline by which schools must have converted to academies – there will be over 2,000 more schools in England that will be free to religiously discriminate in their admission policies, equivalent to around 400,000 places. Such schools are also likely to go from being predominantly controlled by the local authority, to being governed by a religious organisation instead.
BHA Faith Schools Campaigner Jay Harman commented, ‘Unless robust safeguards are introduced and the governance arrangements for mixed MATs are drastically changed, academisation will lead to a quite shocking increase in the level of religious influence in the education system. It simply not appropriate for a school with no religious character to be run by a religious organisation of any kind, especially given how open the churches have been about the pressing need for greater evangelism in schools in order to boost their numbers. The Government should absolutely not be facilitating the churches’ educational empire-building in this way, and we will continue to press it into introducing the safeguards that are necessary to protect our schools from this undue influence.’
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For further comment or information please contact the BHA’s Faith Schools and Education Campaigner Jay Harman on jay@humanists.uk or 0207 324 3078.
Read more about the Education Committee’s inquiry: http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/education-committee/inquiries/parliament-2015/multi-academy-trusts-15-16/
Read the BHA’s full response to the inquiry: https://humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016-04-05-FINAL-BHA-response-Education-Committee-inquiry-on-Multi-Academy-Trusts.pdf
Read the BHA’s previous news item ‘Church of England diocese in “takeover” of primary schools with no religious character’: https://humanists.uk/2016/03/10/church-of-england-diocese-in-takeover-of-primary-schools-with-no-religious-character/
Read the BHA’s previous news item ‘DfE bows to churches’ demands for privilege and protection in face of full academisation’: https://humanists.uk/2016/04/19/dfe-bows-to-churches-demands-for-privilege-and-protection-in-face-of-full-academisation/
Read more about the BHA’s work on ‘faith’ schools: https://humanists.uk/campaigns/schools-and-education/faith-schools/
The British Humanist Association is the national charity working on behalf of non-religious people who seek to live ethical and fulfilling lives on the basis of reason and humanity. It promotes a secular state and equal treatment in law and policy of everyone, regardless of religion or belief.