Controversy over the impact of new regulations on faith schools has continued to plague the Department for Education.
On Sunday, a national newspaper claimed that Education Secretary, Nicky Morgan, was preparing to “take on Britain’s faith schools by ordering them to teach pupils to be tolerant of other religions and respect lesbian, gay and transgender relationships”.
Under the headline “Faith schools must teach “gay rights’”, the Sunday Times reported that faith schools “have been warned that those that fail to follow new rules on British values will be judged inadequate and could face closure.”
Last week, the Chair of Governors of a small Christian school wrote to the Education Secretary, after inspectors told the school that it should invite leaders of other religions to take classes and lead worship. In his letter, John Charles explained:
"It is an explicit aim of ours to encourage pupils to serve and respect other people, appreciate different cultures and ideas and equip them for life in society. But the comments made by Ofsted, as a result of the new regulations, undermine our aims and would prevent us from teaching in accordance with our Christian foundation."
The approach to inspection is apparently driven by a new requirement for schools to ‘actively promote’ British values. The Sunday Times suggested that updated Government guidance on that new requirement will be published this week.
Faith schools must teach ‘gay rights’
However, the Sunday Times article has attracted criticism. The Department for Education tweeted in response: “Nonsense to say schools 'must teach gay rights'. We want schools to teach broad curric based on British values.”
But that message in turn provoked strong criticism from others with Tristram Hunt, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary responding: “LGBT rights are British values. DfE must back compulsory sex and relationship education, including LGBT rights” whilst homosexual rights campaigner, Peter Tatchell, branded the Department’s response as ‘disgraceful homophobia’.
Following the back-lash, the Department for Education removed the tweet and issued a clarification saying that “it was nonsense to say schools were being forced to teach gay rights against their will”.
Andrea Williams, Chief Executive of Christian Concern said:
“This is now a very urgent issue. We need clarification from the Education Secretary as to whether she really intends to force Christian schools to choose either to close down or to stay open but abandon their identity, ethos and beliefs.”
Related Coverage:
Faith schools ‘must teach gay rights’ (The Sunday Times)
Education department's 'gay rights' tweet sparks row (The Telegraph)