Faith schools undermine cohesion, say humanists
A national charity has called for more inclusive schools and less ‘interfaith’ work within local authorities.
In its local and general election manifestos, the British Humanist Association (BHA) claims faith and sectarian schools ‘run contrary to community cohesion’ and says councils should stop their expansion and support local community schools.
It also wants the government not to pay ‘undue attention’ to panels of faith advisers or give specialist grants to faith groups.
As a result of the government’s current focus on contracting public services to the voluntary and community sector, the non-religious charity also wants to see councils strengthen contractual obligations on religious providers to ‘mitigate the risk’ of discrimination to staff and users.
The general election manifesto says: ‘We want local authorities not to champion exclusive “interfaith” work or to privilege religious groups over the rest of the voluntary sector…in access to policy making.’
The documents set out the BHA’s vision on a number of core areas, including local issues, human rights, ethics and equality, and also raise questions for political candidates on issues including assisted dying for the terminally ill and removing bishops from the House of Lords.
Pepper Harow, BHA campaigns officer, said non-religious voices and concerns could trigger real changes to policies.
‘Support for democracy and political participation at local and national levels is core to humanist thinking and we have a lot of issues where we need to make our voices heard,’ she said.
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