Religious/Faith Schools should be banned in the UK

Thanks for accepting. I shall first give an overview of schools with 'religious character' (as defined by the department of education) with the UK. As of January 2010: •616 secondary schools with 'religious character' (18% of the total). Educating 565,120 pupils (17%). •6216 primary schools (37%). Educating 1.206, 540 pupils (29%) We can see from the following link (http://www.humanism.org.uk...) that criteria for different degrees of state schools vary. We can see that Religious Academies set up before 2010 by an independent sponsor receive 90% of their funding from central government. There is also no control over who that sponsor selects as governors of the schools, and that the National Curriculum needs to only be followed in Maths, English and Science. It is also shows that there is no control as to what religious education is taught to their pupils, as that is set by the governors, who are in turn appointed by the sponsor. It is also clear that discrimination in school admissions is allowed on the grounds of religion, and that staff can be tested for their religious beliefs before being hired. My reasons for supporting the abolishment of schools with ‘religious character' (AKA Faith schools) are as follows: 1)Freedom of choice. Many areas of the UK have more faith schools than secular schools, thus decreasing parents choice in where they send their children. The freedom of religion of children is also dismissed, as being labelled with the same religion as their parents, and being sent to a religious schools, means their opportunity to change religion is dramatically decreased. 2)Segregation. Admission policies which allow children to be rejected on the grounds of what religion their parents are (as children are too young to know what religion they want to be), means we have hundreds of thousands of children who spend their entire education segregated from the variety of viewpoints that exist in the nation. 3)Religious Education. In RE classes in non-religious schools it is compulsory to teach the beliefs of every religion equally, and with respect. In religious schools this is waived, and the school can teach whatever form of religious education they wish. The ignorance this can breed is dangerous for society. 4)PSHSE (personal social health and economic education) classes are also not monitored by the state, meaning a teaching of all options is not guaranteed. This means we can have thousands of children who are not taught about safe sex. 5)Religion is given an unjustified free ride when it comes to indoctrinating the young of our nation. I am against this. We would not stand by while a local Neo-Nazi set up a school, chose his own governors, then based admissions on skin colour. That is illegal. So why is it ok for religion to do the same? 6)The rights of children are overlooked. Children have a right to unbiased, equality fuelled education, where the emphasis is on knowledge collection. The right of a parent and community (school) to indoctrinate a child before they can think for themselves is put ahead of the right of a child to not be indoctrinated. Only 7% of the UK worship in church, but 36% of schools are church run. This shows a disturbing trend of faking religion in order to attend local schools. http://www.channel4.com... Some even feel religious schools are unfair on immigrants: http://www.guardian.co.uk... This problem has been around for over 100 years now, with James Bevan noticing the danger of religious education in schools. Religious belief is not a vital part of education. There is also no evidence to support the view that religious schools do better when it comes to results. A study (http://www2.lse.ac.uk...) by Dr Steve Gibbons (London School of Economics), showed that children from the same social background going to different schools (one religious, one not) showed no differences in results. Essentially, the social class intake at religious schools does more to account for results. Religious belief is personal, and should be taught outside of a secular school environment. Therefore I support the banning of religious schools with the UK. References: •Schools of Faith: Religious schools in a multicultural society (British Government Publication; commission for racial equality. 1990) •Religious teaching in secondary schools: A problem of today. James Bevan. •Images of life: Problems of religious belief and human relations in schools. P. Richardson.