{"id":2694,"date":"2024-07-25T10:51:25","date_gmt":"2024-07-25T10:51:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/?p=2694"},"modified":"2024-07-25T10:51:25","modified_gmt":"2024-07-25T10:51:25","slug":"the-cap-religious-discrimination-and-the-importance-of-children-learning-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/?p=2694","title":{"rendered":"The ‘cap,’ religious discrimination, and the importance of children learning together"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Commentary on backward looking proposals to allow schools to discriminate on 100% of admissions on religious grounds. Published Romford Recorder and Docklands and East London Advertiser May 2024<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mainstream party leaders speak admirably about the importance of social harmony. But some have a blind spot when it comes to the crucial question of children\u2019s education. The latest Government proposal to allow 100% religious discrimination in all state schools will increase religious and racial division at a time when integration and cohesion have never been more important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Humanists UK has condemned the move, alongside religious leaders, parliamentarians, and leading educationalists.  In the House of Lords (7 May) former Conservative Education Secretary Lord Baker called it \u2018an absurd proposal that should not feature anywhere in the manifesto of the Conservative party\u2019. <\/em>Lord Storey, Liberal Democrat education spokesperson asked \u2019Does the minister not think it important that in all our schools we should have children of different faiths?\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, the co-leaders of the Green Party, the Chief Officer of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches, Liz Slade, former government integration and community cohesion tsar, and many other prominent public figures are signatories to a letter organised by Humanists UK addressed to the Education Secretary. It urges against removal of the so-called \u201850% cap,\u2019 pointing out that \u2018Removing the restriction on state-funded faith schools to cherry pick students by religion would be a backwards step that risks increasing division and inequality, further entrenching religious selection in our education system, and undermining the principle of inclusivity.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

England & Wales is already an outlier. Only 4 of the 36 OECD countries allow state schools to discriminate on religious grounds. The others are Estonia, Ireland (where attempts are being made to phase it out), and Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 50% cap, introduced by Labour in 2007, is a compromise. Ideally there would be no religious discrimination at all. Evidence shows it goes hand in hand with racial segregation, economic segregation, and disadvantaging of disabled and care-experienced children. All major players in education and think tanks are aware of this, and it is notable that the cap was retained by the coalition Government in 2010. This proposed lurch backwards comes only after lobbying by the Catholic church. The proposals are out for public consultation and should be strenuously opposed by everyone who values children of different faiths and beliefs learning and playing together and its importance to social cohesion.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul Kaufman, Chairperson,<\/strong> East London Humanists<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mainstream party leaders speak admirably about the importance of social harmony. But some have a blind spot when it comes to the crucial question of children\u2019s education. The latest Government proposal to allow 100% religious discrimination in all state schools … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9c4oP-Hs","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2694"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2694"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2696,"href":"https:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2694\/revisions\/2696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}