Faith school curriculum under fire in More4 Dawkins debate
Christians are responding passionately to the Oxford University evolutionary biologist, Richard Dawkins, who is making headlines this week concerning his part in a debate called 'Faith Schools Menace?' shown on television by More4, on Wednesday 18, August.
The debate puts the faith school curriculum under fire in the public arena as the biologist is reported by a major newspaper to argue that religious schools are encouraging social segregation.
Trevor Cooling, Professor of Christian Education at Canterbury Christchurch University and Lead on Education at 'Forum for Change' told the Evangelical Alliance that this programme needs more balance: "It's just sad to see a major channel allowing a one sided presentation of a complex debate. This debate has been going on for a long time. It's also interesting that the GB humanist association is running a campaign against faith schools at the moment."
"The important thing about faith schools is they take seriously the important role that beliefs take in human life. The critics want to make faith a private matter. What Dawkins is arguing for is that all faith schools do the same religious education as non-faith schools. Opponents to faith schools often give the idea that religious education in faith schools is rampant evangelism and this view is a distortion of the true picture. The reality is that there is really good religious education in faith schools."
In an interview with The Times, Professor Dawkins says he is calling on Ofsted to force faith schools to bring religious education into the national curriculum. He is cited as saying that the practice of inculcating children with religious belief is 'wicked.'
Trevor Cooling points out that parents should make their own decisions based on informed decisions and their own personal investigation: "Parents shouldn't be fazed by this sort of media frenzy, but rely on local knowledge. They should go and visit the schools, as what they want is a good quality education that they are comfortable with. Lots of community schools are very good at supporting children in their faith as well…If Dawkins cared about the health of our religiously diverse society he would campaign for good faith schools not abolition."
Good exam results are one reason many non-religious parents choose faith schools according to Professor Dawkins. In interview he also cites the troubles in Northern Ireland where faith schools are often divided along religious lines, concluding that if it wasn't for religious education, oppressors wouldn't have a label by which to know who to oppress.
A spokesman from the Church of England Press office told the Alliance: "The Churches were the first providers of mass education, funding building and staff costs. The State gradually became convinced that it had a duty to provide education and gradually assumed a larger and larger part of the task. But this shouldn't mean that church schools are no longer an important part of the educational landscape of a liberal democracy, and parents tend to think likewise. A survey in 2008 showed that two-thirds of parents think that they should be able to choose a state-run school for their child based on their own religious, moral or philosophical considerations."
