Memorandum submitted by the British Humanist
Association (BHA)
A: THE BRITISH
HUMANIST ASSOCIATION
(BHA)
1. The BHA is the principal organisation
representing the interests of the large and growing population
of ethically concerned non-religious people living in the UK.
It exists to support and represent such people, who seek to live
good lives without religious or superstitious beliefs, is committed
to human rights and democracy, and has a long history of active
engagement in work for an open and inclusive society, and open
and inclusive schools.
2. The BHA has always taken a particularly
strong interest in education, especially religious, moral and
values education, and has participated in many official consultations
and working parties. In the 1970s we co-founded the Social Morality
Council, now the Norham Foundation, and worked constructively
through it with people from Christian and other traditions to
seek agreed solutions to moral and social problems despite our
disagreements on matters of fundamental belief. We were founding
members of the Values Education Council and remain engaged in
it. We have for many years been active in the Religious Education
Council and in many Standing Advisory Councils for Religious Education.
We produce a wide range of material for use in schools, including
a series of briefings on contemporary ethical issues and two teachers'
booklets on "Humanist Perspectives".
3. Our ideas about education are shaped
by our basic beliefs. We see children as people with rights and
responsibilities accruing to them progressively as they grow and
mature. We do not see them as possessions of their parents or
of the state, but we hold that both parents and the state (notably
through its schools) have duties to help fit them for life as
autonomous adults, making their own decisions, including decisions
about fundamental beliefs, accepting the freedom of others to
differ, and both contributing to and benefiting from the community
at large. The community should provide education that helps children
to develop knowledge, judgement and skills—including skills
of moral thinking and citizenship. Schools should be impartial,
fair and balanced in dealing with controversial subjects, religion
no less than politics.
4. It should be clear then that the BHA
is strongly committed to statutory citizenship education in schools
and we welcome the fact that prominent humanists such as Bernard
Crick (a Vice President of the BHA) have played a full part in
bringing it about. We endorse all the aims of citizenship education,
such as those that are concerned with political and media literacy,
but the most particular area of our interest is in statutory citizenship
education as a subject that aims to assist in the development
of young people as citizens with critical faculties who are socially
and morally responsible. Below we concentrate in brief on a few
areas associated with citizenship education of special interest
to our members. We would be happy to expand on any of these areas
in person before your Committee.
B: NON-RELIGIOUS
SCHOOLS
Assemblies and "Collective Worship"
5. The addition of a new subject to the
National Curriculum caused some concern about how the new material
would fit into a stretched timetable. We believe that a very obvious
time of the school day which can be used, in part, for the delivery
of citizenship is assembly.
6. The current law requires every school
to hold a daily act of "collective worship" which is
to be broadly Christian in nature (most recent statement of the
law is in the School Standards and Framework Act 1998)
7. The problems with this are clear. Not
only is this an incoherent requirement for modern schools (lacking
a shared religion, a school may do many things collectively, but
"worship" is not one of them) but it ties the hands
of teachers and head teachers who may wish to use assembly time
for something more educational. One of those things might be the
delivery of citizenship education.
8. For many years the BHA has advocated
reform of the law on collective worship and we concur with many
other interested organisations in believing that there is a better
role for school assemblies than collective worship. Reformed school
assemblies could make a great contribution to whole-school citizenship
as a time when the whole school comes together to affirm shared
values.
9. In many good schools, assemblies are
indeed used as a time when shared values can be explored and topics
that are cross-curricular. A reform in the law (see appendix 1
for a suggested amendment which would accomplish this for non-faith
schools, and for further notes on this subject) and new guidance
under a reformed law would contribute greatly to this. [59]
Citizenship Education and Religious Education
10. RE is clearly one of those subjects
through which statutory citizenship education may be delivered.
[60]We
believe that citizenship education is at its most effective when
it is integrated fully into the ethos of a school and also that,
although there is a need for much citizenship teaching as a discrete
subject, it is in practice taught in many schools through other
subjects, such as history, English, PSHE, or RE.
11. In the case of RE, we believe it is
difficult for those producing textbooks and resources to do so
in a way that the links between RE and citizenship can be fully
explored and that this is because RE, instead of being on the
National Curriculum, is taught (in community schools) according
to 151 local syllabuses.
12. We would recommend that RE (perhaps
more inclusively named as "beliefs and values education"
or similar) be added to the National Curriculum, to better ensure
consistency of provision across all schools. One effect of this
would also be to make it easier for teachers, teaching training
institutions, and educational publishers to make effective links
between RE and citizenship education.
Citizenship Education and identity
13. We do not believe that children automatically
share their families' religious beliefs or that children should
be described as "Christian", "Sikh" "humanist"
etc until they have had the opportunity to explore and decide
these matters for themselves. (That is one reason that many humanist
parents give for wanting good RE in schools.)
14. In light of this, we believe that, when
addressing issues of religion and identity in citizenship and
elsewhere, teachers should be advised not to make assumptions
about their pupils' affiliations or self-definitions in this area.
The best teachers, or course, do this, but we believe that religion
is one area in which the ideal of a critical and totally open
approach to issues is still seen as sensitive if not controversial.
15. Since one of the aspirations for good
citizenship education is that it encourages the critical faculties
of young people and encourages them to consider their own responses
to questions of identity, we feel that the question of religious
identity should be left as open as possible for them, and that
guidelines such as those recommended by some educationists in
the USA (see for example http:tinyurl.com/ngxf9) would be welcome
here.
C: RELIGIOUS
("FAITH") SCHOOLS
16. The policy of the British Humanist Association
is that faith schools should be phased out and that all state
funded schools should be inclusive and accommodating institutions.
Our current education policy, A Better Way Forward, is
attached as appendix 3 to this submission and is of interest to
the present inquiry because it lays out the policies which we
would see as best contributing to the cultivation of a feeling
of shared citizenship.[61]
That being said, however, we recognise that the existence of faith
schools is not the focus of the present enquiry, and so below
we comment on some aspects of faith schools and citizenship education
specifically.
Citizenship Education and Faith Schools
17. The most recent Ofsted report on Citizenship
(27 September 2006) says: [62]"The
problem in some schools is that [...] citizenship (is) almost
invisible in the curriculum itself. Particularly in the early
days of citizenship as a new subject, many head teachers claimed
their ethos as a main plank of their citizenship provision. Especially
in faith schools, they cited the ethical and moral values of their
pupils as evidence of effective provision. In these schools, head
teachers may well point to the demeanour of their pupils as good
citizens in a general sense, and to all the parts of their school's
work that contribute to this; but they have missed the point that
National Curriculum citizenship is now a subject that is taught,
learned, assessed and practised."
18. This judgment, of course, finds an echo
in the widely reported comments of David Bell when he was Chief
Inspector of Schools, [63]and
we believe it was also justified by the oral evidence given to
your Committee by the representatives of a number of religious
organisations that are school providers on 22 May 2006.
19. Comments in the oral evidence of religious
representatives to your Committee that we particularly noticed
in connection with this issue were: "being a good Catholic
involves being a good citizen"; "It strikes me that
the non-faith schools system might be needing to catch up with
where we as faith schools have had little difficulty in understanding
citizenship for many decades"; "from an Islamic point
of view a good citizen is a good Muslim, a universal citizen.
I suppose a properly run Islamic school would not require a citizenship
programme at all because within its philosophy, its teachings
and its holistic approach is what I would call the effective domain
which seeks to turn young people into good human beings with universal
values."
Assumption that citizenship is in the faith "ethos"
20. One problem appears to be that citizenship
is seen by some faith schools as something that is implicit within
their own ethos and consists in young people learning to be "good"
or useful to their community. This assumption is not borne out
by reports such as the Ofsted report of September 2006.
21. We are also concerned by the assumption
made by the representatives of faith schools that being a good
citizen is a necessary corollary of being a religious person.
Not only is there an unpleasant implication that one can only
be a good citizen if one is a religious person (an unacceptable
line for state-funded faith schools, which of course will contain
children not of the faith of the school) but it assumes a definition
of citizen and citizenship that is not necessarily that which
is intended by statutory citizenship on the curriculum. Citizenship
is in part about fostering the skills necessary for the citizens
of a modern democracy and a liberal open and pluralist society
to participate in that society—it is not just about becoming
a "good" person.
22. These aspects of citizenship education
may not always be compatible with the faith ethos of a school.
For example, as one head of a Muslim school, Ibrahim Lawson, said
on Beyond Belief (Radio 4, March 2003): "the essential
purpose of the Islamia school as with all Islamic schools is to
inculcate profound religious belief in the children". This
is not necessarily an aim compatible with the ideals of citizenship
education and it is the case that some religious groups espouse
views that are not compatible with a full commitment to equality,
human rights, and democratic principles.
Delivering Citizenship Education through RE
23. We are concerned that citizenship in
faith schools may be delivered mainly through RE, which seems
to be the consequence of the idea that citizenship is best developed
through faith. RE in faith schools is inspected separately from
the "secular" curriculum and not by Ofsted—we
are concerned that the delivery of citizenship through RE may
therefore locate citizenship beyond the inspection remit of Ofsted
and be inimical to its effective evaluation. Further, we are concerned
that in some faith schools, RE (which, by law, is permitting to
be confessional) may not readily lend itself to the proper teaching
of citizenship.
24. One example is to be found in the Church
of England's document "Excellence and Distinctiveness: Guidance
on RE in Church of England Schools". Although on page 6 "promoting
inclusion for all" is recommended, on the same page the beliefs
of those who do not believe in a non-material world are described
as "ultimately sterile"—this is hardly the model
of inclusion. The document also draws a distinction (page 4) between
Christian children who are to be "nourish[ed]", children
of other religions, who are to be "encourage[d]" and
children with no faith who are to be "challenge[d]".
25. We would also be concerned if we thought
that the teaching of citizenship through RE ran the risk of implying
that values, such as those values that are explored in citizenship,
are necessarily dependent on faith. One reason for our support
of statutory citizenship (see 4 above) is that it allows a space
for values to be discussed outside the context of RE and so is
more inclusive of those whose beliefs are not religious. If citizenship
in faith schools is largely taught through RE (and indeed the
same point could be made about teaching citizenship through RE
in non-religious schools), we are concerned that non-religious
young people may feel alienated from the discussion of shared
values.
Citizenship Education and religious identity
26. We would not go so far as to claim that
"identity politics"' are wholly incompatible with democratic
politics, but we do have concerns about religious schools and
citizenship which are related to the question of religious identity.
27. We realise that your present inquiry
is not about the desirability or otherwise of state-funded faith
schools. The claim made by the representatives of faith schools
in their evidence to you that faith and faith schools encourage
the development of active citizens is, however, in our view questionable
and we would like to comment on it briefly. Admittedly, there
is little evidence either way as to the outcomes for young people
(though reports such as the most recent one from Ofsted give reason
to think the opposite). There is some evidence, however, that
strong religious identities are not those which best equip young
people to participate in civil society.
28. Research funded by the Nestle Research
Programme identified one group of young people as "Own Group
Identified": those who strongly associated their identity
with their nation or religion. [64]They
were least likely to vote or to take part in demonstrations. They
had the lowest rate of participation in recent community and political
activities.
29. Further, some who have attended faith
schools have not felt that they connected them to the wider society.
For example, Farzina Alam, writing in the Muslim magazine Q
News: "Academically it did me no favours. Spiritually,
it made me look down on fellow believers and people in general.
Is the only purpose of such schools gender segregation? [...]
Perhaps the school I attended is the exception to the rule but
I have a suspicion it isn't [...] if [faith schools] are helping
create a myopic, insular generation that is uncomfortable in modern
multicultural, multi-faith Britain, then I think I'd rather have
my kids take their chances in a mainstream comprehensive any day."
30. As we stated in 26 above, we would not
make any exaggerated claims for this evidence—there is no
comprehensive evidence either way. But we do believe that the
sort of schools that are permitted by law to separate children
on religious grounds through their admissions policies and to
teach RE of their own devising are not best equipped for the delivery
of citizenship education.
D: CONCLUSION
31. The BHA is a strong supporter of citizenship
education and we believe that, to be effective, the subject needs
to be much better funded and be taken more seriously by more schools
(the same could be said of RE).
32. Just as many subjects can, good inclusive
RE can contribute to the delivery of citizenship education, but
it could never be the sole means of delivery. If it were (eg in
faith schools), the BHA would be concerned as to the effectiveness
of such an approach.
33. The time currently set aside (in law
if not in practice) for "collective worship" could be
better allocated to inclusive assemblies, one aspect of which
could be the delivery of citizenship.
October 2006
59 Not printed. Back
60
But, as a corrective against the sometimes exaggerated claims
made for RE in this regard, we recommend Ted Huddleston's article
in Teaching Citizenship, issue 7, Autumn 2003, reproduced
as appendix 2. Back
61
Not printed. Back
62
Towards Consensus? Citizenship in Secondary Schools (Ofsted
2006). Back
63
Reported at (eg) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4180845.stm Back
64
"My Voice. My Vote, My Community: a study of young people's
civic action and inaction", Helen Haste (Nestle Social Research
programme Report number four), October 2005. Back
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