Do faith schools really promote community cohesion better than non-faith schools?
Questions raised over C of E report on church schools and community cohesion
27 Nov 2009A report commissioned by the Church of England claims that faith schools are better at building relationships with their local communities than non-religious schools.
But critics say that the report does not demonstrate this, and instead gives church schools credit for the extra work they have to do as a result of their religiously restrictive admissions policies.
The study by Professor David Jesson at York University, analysed ratings given to 700 primary schools and 400 secondary schools by Ofsted inspectors for promoting community cohesion.
The researchers gave schools a score of one if they were rated "outstanding", through to four if they were given an "inadequate" judgment. The findings showed both faith primary schools and non-religious primaries scored an average of 2.2 overall. But at secondary level, the faith schools scored an average of 1.86, compared to 2.31 for non-religious secondaries.
Of the 74 secondary faith schools surveyed, almost a third (32 per cent) were rated "outstanding" at community relations, while around one in seven (14 per cent) of the 271 non-religious secondaries were given the same grade.
The report assesses the meeting of the legal duty that all maintained schools in England now have to promote community cohesion. This duty was introduced by the Education and Inspections Act 2006 and came into effect on 1 September 2007. Schools’ compliance with the duty is inspected by Ofsted.
Professor Jenson and the Church of England are claiming their survey as "clear evidence" that faith schools are awarded "substantially higher" grades for community cohesion than other schools.
However, Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain, chair of the Accord Coalition, which campaigns for inclusive education and community schooling, warned that the Ofted criteria for cohesion are not robust enough.
Church of England schools are only satisfying a benchmark that fails to consider admissions policies or the religious curriculum of faith schools, he pointed out this morning.
“Building community cohesion is vitally important and we congratulate all those schools that have been working hard to meet the duty', Dr Romain declared.
"But the most pressing issue is whether the criteria used by Ofsted are sufficient."
While school linking projects and classroom discussions of diversity are commendable, inspectors should also consider the impact of discriminatory admissions and the limited teaching of RE on cohesion, Romain added.
"Meetings with other groups have little merit if the children move in closeted circles most of the time and do not receive a broad education in class," he said.
Faith in cohesion
All "maintained" (government-funded) schools in England have a legal duty to promote community cohesion.
Professor David Jesson's Church of England commissioned report claims that faith schools (notably, one supposes, Church of England schools) do a better job of this than state schools.
However, the Accord Coalition and the British Humanist Association counter that faith schools whose admissions policies discriminate in favour of their own faith members actually have more to do to promote community cohesion than do state community schools, where children from diverse religions or non-religious belief groups are educated together.
Independent research shows that religious segregation in schools tends to reinforce the social isolation of different sections of the population and the living of "parallel lives" referred to by Ted Cantle referred in his 2001 report following inter-communal disturbances in cities in the north of England.
Faith schools open to all
What this doesn't address, though, is the question of faith-based schools that are open to children of any faith or none. How good would such schools (if they exist) be at promoting community cohesion?
Actually, can we set the term "community cohesion" aside for a moment? It's too bureaucratic for my taste. Instead I'm thinking in terms of human oneness and solidarity. I'm thinking about how people embrace and live by the knowledge that all human beings are part of a single family and that each of us is responsible for the welfare of all.
It isn't enough for this to be theoretical knowledge or a good thing "in principle". It has to be real lived experience.
Yes, we need the foundation of the principle of oneness (sometimes referred to as "unity in diversity"), but there is no substitute for the day-to-day experience of living with people of different faiths and cultures.
And that suggests that schools that include children from different backgrounds are likely to be better at promoting human solidarity - oh, all right, community cohesion, if you insist.
But only if they have a culture that strongly nurtures integration - aka fellowship - between children of different faiths and cultures.
