Nathan Jeffray (24 October 2006) raises a point of crucial
importance. Faiths such as Judaism and Islam, which teach an entire way of living, are
different from those
like Anglicanism which regard religion as less all-possessing. Jeffray says a youngster’s
Jewish identity is shaped, through an all-embracing ethos, at a Jewish school.
The same applies to a Muslim school.
Schools of this type depend on an exclusivity that requires
all the pupils to share the same faith. That would be destroyed by a law requiring at
least a quarter of
pupils to
be of a different faith or none. The consequences would be serious.
Nevertheless my own view is that for English schools that
depend largely on public money it would be right to make this change. The taxpayer ought
not to be made to finance
whole-life
religious schooling.
Francis Bennion (Chairman Emeritus, Professional Association
of Teachers)
Published in
The Guardian, Education Guardian, 31 October 2006.
