Education Secretary Nicky Morgan has announced that the government plans to limit complaints over faith schools’ admission policies.
The new plans are intended to prevent complaints from outside the local community, which can burden school admissions systems. They will also prevent secular campaign groups from bringing "vexatious complaints" against faith schools.
Only local parents or the local authority will be allowed to lodge a complaint against a school, Nicky Morgan announced today. She also said that admissions authorities will be required to consult on their policies every four years, rather than the current seven, as part of the government’s effort to ensure that the school admission system works for parents.
Resources wasted
Responding to challenges from those who aren’t actually seeking a place for a child is "not good use of an adjudicator's time and public money", according to a report by Schools Adjudicator, Elizabeth Passmore. The BBC reported that these types of challenges "meant that running the adjudication service was costing more than £1.1m per year."
Secular campaign groups claim that faith schools use their admission policy to unfairly discriminate against minorities or working class families. But the government reports: "Despite rising pupil numbers, 95% of parents received an offer at 1 of their top 3 preferred schools last year."
Faith schools provide unique benefits
Andrea Williams, Chief Executive of Christian Concern, said that, while unjust discrimination is never warranted, faith schools should be able to make admissions decisions based on the faith of the pupils and their families.
She said: "Certainly the benefit of Christian schools is that they foster spiritual, as well as physical and mental development, built upon the firm foundation of God’s word. If we remove schools’ ability to foster this distinctive ethos, they will lose the added benefit to children as well."
Idle gesture
She added, however, that this move by the education secretary may prove to be no more than an idle gesture in terms of protecting religious freedom. Mrs Morgan told BBC Radio 4 last summer that a child saying that homosexuality is wrong could be a sign of 'extremism'.
Listen to Nicky Morgan tell the Today Programme that a child saying homosexuality is wrong could be a sign of 'extremism'
This comment, together with the sweeping nature of the government’s 'Counter-Extremism Strategy', suggests that Christian schools could be deemed 'extremist' for teaching that sexual activity outside of marriage between a man and a woman is sinful.
"This policy will be meaningless if the government continues to pursue its ‘counter-extremism’ plans, which have the potential to silence the expression of sincerely held religious beliefs in every segment of society, including in schools", Andrea said.
The government has said it will consult on these plans "in due course."
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Related Coverage:
Faith school places objections to be limited to local parents (BBC)
Nicky Morgan to protect faith schools from secular campaigns (Telegraph)