Stop this religious takeover!
Tuesday, February 23, was a bad day for our youth, for democracy and for common sense.
A Government Bill that included the principles to be followed in Sex and Relationships Education (SRE) was passed, but in a form mutilated by a Catholic pressure group.
The principles listed in the bill are:
That the information provided should be accurate and balanced and should be taught in a way that is suited to the pupils' age and religious and cultural background, reflects a reasonable range of religious and cultural perspectives, encourages acceptance of diversity, and emphasises the importance of both rights and responsibilities.
Would anyone object? Well, yes.
The week before the Catholic Education Service had proudly boasted that following its "extensive lobbying" the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, Ed Ball, had tabled an amendment that allows faith schools to ignore the above principles if they conflict with the school's religious character.
And the Bill was passed without the amendment being debated!
There is no doubt that we need to improve our approach to sex and relationships in this country: we are not good at talking to our children about them, and in spite of modest improvements, our teenage pregnancy rate is some five times that of the Netherlands and our teenage abortion rate is much higher.
But this is just another example of the Government granting, or being forced into, concessions for faith schools: some time back intense pressure from the Catholic Church forced the then Secretary of State for Education, Alan Johnson into a humiliating withdrawal of his suggestion that new (not existing) Catholic schools should make 25% of their places available to non-Catholics, and, more recently, Catholic and Anglican pressure has increased the rights of faith schools to hire, promote and fire staff on the basis of their religious acceptability.
When is the steady takeover of our school system by religious organisations to be reversed?
What are the avenues of influence that are used? When are politicians going to stand up. The coming election should provide us with an opportunity to ask some questions.
Allan Hayes, president, Leicester Secular Society.
3 Comments
by Allan Hayes, Leicester
Monday, March 01 2010, 3:34PM
“Danny, John,
Thanks for your support. Most people, and that includes many in the religions, object to what is happening - but we need to act and speak up before it is too late.
Please consider joining Leicester Secular Society.(lsec.org.uk) and one of the national bodies like The Accord Coalition (www.accordcoalition.org.uk/);
The British Humanist Association (www.humanism.org.uk/home);
the National Secular Society (
/www.secularism.org.uk)”
by Danny, Narborough
Monday, March 01 2010, 1:04PM
“Also in full agreement. Politicians should be ashamed of themselves for allowing important issues such as sex education, allocation of places at school for children and employment to be determined by whether people believe in some mythical superbeing, and what rules that superbeing's followers may have decided were relevant at some point in the past.”
by John Dale, Narborough Rd
Monday, March 01 2010, 11:23AM
“I'm in total agreement Allan.
However you finish by stating that the upcoming election will allow the vast majority of non-superstitious people to "ask some questions", but I'm not so optimistic as you, as I'm unaware of any mainstream, political party that is prepared to stand up and be counted by producing a truly secular manifesto. They all pander to the religious lobby to a degree.
They all know how they can guarantee my vote.”