To think it is time to secularise all state-funded education?

[fideline]

Just that really.

YANBU.

In fact I don't think your statement goes far enough. In my view:

• State-funded schools should be entirely secular. They should teach a broad and balanced RE curriculum in an objective manner. If you want your child to be brought up with religious faith then do that in your own time. We don't have faith hospitals. We're not allowed to have schools which are secular/rational /humanist running on the same principles as faith schools. how on earth have we ended up in the position where our entire education system is delicately balanced upon a web of different superstitious beliefs?

• Increased segregation based on religious divides can promote unnecessary sectarian tension.

• The requirement for a daily act of worship should be scrapped.

• The state should not be funding special-interest free schools and academies either. We had a crazy situation under the previous government whereby special-interest groups would make a small contribution to the cost of a new school building, and make enormous demands about accommodating their interest while the taxpayer picked up the remainder of the bill. Mind you, the current government have abandoned school building improvements in a bid to return us to Thatcher's era of dilapidation.

• The church should not form part of the government either- there's no need for bishops to get special treatment in the form of positions in the House of Lords (though that too is a whole other can of worms).

fide yes more or less. We were a good school before and still are. The other local schools are academy's so we offer something different - which we always did as known for the pastoral care

The State should not be permitted to lay bias on a religion within a state funded building. To me, it smacks of access. Access to young, possibly impressionable, minds to indoctrinate.

All religion should be taken and bundled into Philosophy, Theology and Ethics and taught as a possibility rather than The Word.

Increased segregation based on religious divides can promote unnecessary sectarian tension.

Yes. Faith schools act against social cohesion in areas like the Lancashire 'mill towns', and don't forget Northern Ireland - Peter Robinson made a case for ending segregation a few years ago (don't think it got anywhere, alas) - the only thing I'd disagree with in that is the word 'benign'.

Seems rather a pointless exercise then Hup .

Were there structural or funding changes?

yabu.....what's wrong with non-celebrity/materialistic-culture values anyway.....not saying only faith cultures have them btw

I agree with Corus; that is a very odd conflation Demise

your both correct there's lots of bad value systems, so what's so awful about faith schools???????????

Eh? Why do we have to choose between either faith schools or celebrity/materialistic schools? Can't we just have non-faith schools which don't feature celebrity ?

most atheists are great I'm sure[am related to and am friends with loads]...but I can never understand the tub-thumping-evangelical-secularist movement :they're so preachy-which is just what they accuse 'faith schools' of being-and joyless at times...in fact smug middleclass narrow-minded types of christians have a lot in common with them I think

What's so awful about faith schools?

• The faith concerned pay a tiny amount of the school's costs while the state pays the remainder. The school ,however, can use religious discrimination to exclude vast swathes of the population. So the children of parents with no/other faiths are not good enough to attend the school, but the colour of their tax payments is certainly acceptable.

• Faith is a lifestyle choice. Religious discrimination should have no more place in our education system than discrimination on grounds of the protected characteristics of race, sexuality, disability . Schools don't discriminate on the basis of rugby team supported or favourite type of cake- why is the state paying to run a load of schools according to someone's hobby?

• Children are being excluded from access to a full range of educational options on the basis of their parents' faith- how is that reasonable?

People who want to study a religion, or abide by a particular set of beliefs, can do that using their own choice of holy book or place of worship.

Also, it would appear that being in favour of a faith-based education leaves one unable to punctuate correctly. Educational standards do need to be maintained, regardless of what Jesus would do about errant semi-colons.

I agree with everything Inertia has said.

Religion has absolutely no place in state education.

I'd vote for you inertia!

I might print out your post of 00.13 (I think, can't go back on phone). It sums up so nicely what I feel about the issue.

Bloody ridiculous the state is sanctioning religion being taught as fact not opinion and indoctrinating children. In many places there is no choice as village school is C of E. Awful.

I wonder what Jesus would do about errant semi-colons. And Guru Nanak. And Muhammed (pbuh).

I think Demise and nimity met the same splinter group of secularists....

I'm reminded by this thread how strongly I feel about this. I might write to my MP or Gove. Lots of interesting issues on thread eg assembly requirement. The council are proposing to build a new CE school near us. I think I'll object. Already my two nearest school we are excluded from on religion.

I like the cut of your jib Inertia. You write exactly what I think. Sadly, I don't believe religion's grip on the state will end any time soon.

The problem with Inertia's excellent manifesto would be getting it implemented.

Fancy drawing up a ten-stage plan in?

Fedeline, I grew up in NI in the 70s-90s and the language and arguments used by evangelical atheists are so similar to those bigots I grew up with, so I get where she's coming from. The same can be said of their views on Islam (very similar to EDL rantings). You call them a splinter group, but they are a vocal and disruptive minority (thankfully). More prevalent on the PRS section where Niminy spends a fair bit of time.

You and most other atheists may not agree with them, but they do exist.

I'm not an atheist dione

Your own prejudices are showing, I think.

All those wanting to get rid of religion in schools and in the life of the country realise that we would also have to get rid of the queen?

Just wondering if you knew...