PLANS for the Church of England to cut the number of places offered
to children of practising Anglicans to just one in 10 in every class
have been welcomed by religious and secular groups campaigning to end
religious discrimination.
However they face opposition from parents
determined to get high-quality education for their children.
Under
the changes proposed by the head of the church’s board of education,
Bishop of Oxford the Right Rev John Pritchard, a limited number of
places would be reserved for children of churchgoers but this should be
“minimised because our primary function and our privilege is to serve
the wider community.
“Ultimately, I hope we can get the number of
reserved places right down to 10 per cent. It goes back to what we see
the mission of the church as being. I don’t think the mission generally
is about collecting nice Christians into safe places,” he said.
The church is due to publish guidelines on admissions during the summer.
Anglican
and Catholic church members in the United Kingdom often increase the
frequency of their church attendance when they become parents in an
attempt to secure places for their children in religious schools,
believing them – often correctly – to provide a far higher quality of
education than nearby state schools.
During Tony Blair’s time in
10 Downing Street, the Labour government tried to ensure that only a
quarter of places at new faith schools were kept for non-religious
pupils but this was blocked following vigorous opposition led by the
Catholic church, which insists on its right to offer denominational
teaching.
Currently, the Anglican church teaches nearly one
million pupils, mostly in primary schools, although about half the 4,800
Church of England schools are free to set their entry rules, so are
less likely to agree to the bishop’s proposal.
Anne West,
professor of education policy at the London School of Economics, said
the proposed changes, if implemented, could have the biggest impact on
admissions to Church of England schools in a generation.
However,
the proposal was welcomed by Terry Sanderson, president of the National
Secular Society, who said Bishop Pritchard was the first leading
Anglican to admit the high performance of Church of England schools was
due to selection of the brightest pupils rather than quality of
education.
Rabbi Jonathan Romain, chair of Accord, which campaigns
to promote inclusive schools, said the current rules meant religion and
discrimination in schools had “become almost synonymous”.
“Schools
should be inclusive and tolerant and no state-funded school should be
allowed to discriminate on the grounds of religion for any of their
teacher posts or any pupil places,” he said.
There are already signs of emerging division within the Church of England.
The
Rev Clive Sedgewick, director of education for the dioceses of Bradford
and Ripon and Leeds, said the church may “be shooting itself in the
foot” and that some parents would see the proposed moves as retrograde.
“Personally, I might suggest a third of places being reserved,” he said.