A group of 70 religious leaders, parliamentarians, education experts and public figures have signed a joint letter calling on education secretary Damian Hinds to reconsider plans to lift the faith schools cap.
Among the signatories are former Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams, Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain, Humanists UK chief executive Andrew Copson, authors Philip Pullman and Ian McEwan, and NEU teaching union joint general secretaries Kevin Courtney and Dr Mary Bousted.
The letter states that allowing new faith schools to select more than 50 per cent of pupils based on their religion would betray the duty of schools to be “open, inclusive, diverse, and integrated”.
It says: “The government rightly identifies the promotion of mutual understanding and tolerance for those of different religions and beliefs as one of the most important roles for schools. As we are all aware, children are blind to the differences and immune to the prejudices that so often divide society.
“The duty of the education system, therefore, should not be to highlight and entrench such differences in the eyes and minds of young people, but to emphasise instead the common values that we all share.
“Removing the 50 per cent cap on religious selection at faith-based free schools runs entirely counter to this ambition.
“It is difficult to bring to mind a more divisive policy, or one more deleterious to social cohesion and respect, than one which allows schools to label children at the start of their lives with certain beliefs and then divide them up on that basis.”
Schools’ principles
In 2016, the government consulted on proposals to drop the current requirement that all new religious free schools keep at least half of their places open to all local children, irrespective of religion or belief.
Former education secretary Justine Greening was understood to have been unenthusiastic about lifting the cap, but her successor Mr Hinds is in favour of the plans.
The letter was organised by Humanists UK. Its chief executive Andrew Copson said: “People from across the political spectrum, representing a range of different religions and beliefs, are united on this one point: whatever your views on faith schools themselves, it cannot be right for taxpayer-funded schools to divide and discriminate against children.
“That is the principle that underpins this letter - and it ought to be the principle that underpins our education system, too.”
The views in the letter are in sharp contrast to those expressed by the Catholic Church, which opposes the cap on the basis that turning away members of its own faith is against canonical law.
A spokesperson for the Catholic Education Service said: “Existing Catholic schools, which can allocate all places on the grounds of faith, are the most socially and ethnically diverse schools in the country. They also educate more than 300,000 non-Catholics including 27,000 Muslims.
“All credible evidence, including the government’s own analysis, points to the fact that the 50 per cent cap hasn’t created diversity. This is because minority faith schools are only popular with their respective community. Catholic schools on the other hand are extremely popular with parents of all faiths and none.
“All the cap achieves is that it prevents Catholic parents from having the same choice of schools enjoyed by other parents.”
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