All posts tagged: Faith

Faith schools are a barrier to equality, NSS tells DfE and Ofsted

Faith schools are a barrier to equality, NSS tells DfE and Ofsted

Published by skeptic

The Government and the schools inspectorate should challenge discriminatory practices at faith schools, the National Secular Society has said. The Department for Education and Ofsted are consulting on reforming how schools in England are inspected, and on adopting a “stronger approach to school improvement”. The Government said its school system will “drive high and rising standards, across every school and for every child, breaking down barriers to opportunity”. But the NSS said faith schools create barriers through faith-based admissions and other policies. Schools with a religious character are permitted to select 100% of their pupils based on religion when oversubscribed. In free schools, this is capped at 50%. Ofsted said it will increase its focus on “disadvantaged children and learners, those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and those who leaders have identified as being particularly vulnerable”. The NSS argued faith schools which select pupils based on religion are failing these children. Recent research has revealed faith schools admit fewer children from deprived backgrounds and children with SEND. They also create barriers for looked-after …

Head of faith school which segregated staff banned

Head of faith school which segregated staff banned

Published by skeptic

More from this theme Recent articles The proprietor of a faith school that segregated staff by their sex and prevented girls from studying certain subjects has been banned from managing schools. Zafar Iqbal Khan, chair of the Muslim Rabia Boys and Girls School, has been disqualified from taking part in the management of independent schools – including academies or free schools. The school, in Luton, was accused of “actively undermining” British values by ex-Ofsted chief Sir Michael Wilshaw in 2016. Inspectors found male and female staff divided during training sessions, and two years earlier found girls could not study certain subjects. Repeated Ofsted failures The faith school was also rated ‘inadequate’ in multiple Ofsted inspections – first in 2014, then twice in 2015, twice more in 2016 and twice again in 2017 – more than any other private school in the country at the time. During its inspections, Ofsted failed the school on a range of standards, including inadequate careers advice, lesson-planning, teaching British values and provision for special needs pupils. A particularly critical report …

Leader of faith school that sex-segregated pupils and staff banned

Leader of faith school that sex-segregated pupils and staff banned

Published by skeptic

The National Secular Society has welcomed a ban on a school proprietor whose school segregated staff and pupils according to sex. Zafar Iqbal Khan, former proprietor of Rabia Girls’ and Boys’ School, has been prohibited from managing independent schools, academies and free schools, according to a notice published by the Department for Education today. He is also barred from serving as a school governor at maintained schools. Rabia Girls’ and Boys’ school was an Islamic independent school in Luton. It closed in 2021 after failing Ofsted inspections for seven years. In 2016, Rabia was referred to the Equality and Human Rights Commission for sex-segregating staff. Women were forced to sit in a separate room during staff training, with sessions broadcast to them. During a meeting with inspectors, the school “insisted” on using a dividing screen to separate male and female staff. The school also hosted radical clerics and alleged terrorist sympathisers. The regulator expressed concern that school had failed to protect pupils from potentially harmful views. In 2017, Ofsted inspectors found Rabia was limiting girls …

Faith communities are setting a courageous example for standing up to Trump

Faith communities are setting a courageous example for standing up to Trump

Published by skeptic

(RNS) — In the few weeks since the inauguration of President Donald Trump, there have been a distressing number of American institutions and corporations that have “obeyed in advance,” to borrow a phrase from the historian Timothy Snyder. Target, Pepsi, Google and McDonald’s, to name just a few corporations, have agreed to halt efforts at increasing diversity and equity and inclusion. Paul Weiss and other law firms that sought to hold the line against the lawlessness of the first Trump administration have given in to the demands of Trump 2.0 with nary a whimper. Columbia and Harvard universities have thrown in the towel without a fight, making major alterations in their policies and faculties in the face of White House threats to their federal funding. In allowing their rights to be trampled, they are opening the way for the rights of far more vulnerable organizations and people to be trampled as well. Yet one important constituency in American life continues to demonstrate moral clarity about the present danger, and it may surprise you: religious congregations, …

National Call to Action for Faith Communities

National Call to Action for Faith Communities

Published by skeptic

 On this special early-release edition of The State of Belief, you’ll hear host Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush moderate an incredible group of faith leaders, progressive organizers, and activists who came together for a National Call to Action for Faith Communities on April 2, 2025. This episode is a must-listen as we explore the urgent issues facing our democracy and the vital role that diverse faith communities can play in this moment of crisis.In this episode, we discuss the alarming state of our nation, where people are being marginalized, and our democratic values are under threat. We hear from thought leaders like Maria J. Stephan (Horizons Project), who emphasizes the historical significance of faith communities in pro-democracy movements worldwide, and the importance of coming together to resist authoritarianism. You will also hear the inspiring voices of Rahna Epting (MoveOn) and Leah Greenberg (Indivisible); Bishop Duane Royster (Faith In Action);  Wa’el Alzayat (Engage); Jamie Bieran (Bend the Arc Jewish Action); and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis (Poor Peoples’ Campain, Kairos Center), who share their insights on the …

Independent faith schools three times more likely to receive warning

Independent faith schools three times more likely to receive warning

Published by skeptic

Independent faith schools were three times more likely to receive a warning notice in 2024 compared to nonreligious schools, new research shows. National Secular Society analysis found 8% of all independent faith schools received a warning notice in 2024, in comparison to just 2.6% of nonreligious independent schools. The Department for Education ( DfE ) issues warning notices and enforcement letters to independent schools that fail to meet the independent school standards Government figures show the fifth of England’s 2,443 independent schools with a recorded religious character or ethos to be significantly overrepresented in those receiving warning notices. Of the 90 notices issued in 2024, 39 were for faith institutions, compared to 51 for nonreligious schools. Separate Ofsted figures for 2024 also show that 29% of independent faith schools did not meet the independent school standards, compared to 16% of other independent schools. The NSS said the greater prevalence of failure amongst faith schools was driven by institutions not meeting requirements they perceive to conflict with their religious beliefs. Sex segregation, mould-covered walls, and ‘blatant …

APPHG Chair welcomes provisions to tackle illegal faith schools as Children’s Bill passes to the Lords

APPHG Chair welcomes provisions to tackle illegal faith schools as Children’s Bill passes to the Lords

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All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group (APPHG) Chair Lizzi Collinge MP welcomed provisions in the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill to end illegal faith schools and introduce a home-educated children’s register as the Bill finished its first stages in the Commons and passed to the House of Lords. But she called for the 50% cap on faith-based admissions to new state schools to be maintained, in the face of it being scrapped by the Bill. Lizzi spoke at the report stage of the Bill, welcoming the new powers it provides against illegal faith schools that would ‘[grant] Ofsted increased powers of entry and [provide] more powers to bring criminal cases against those schools and the people who run them.’ Humanists UK has led the campaign to close illegal faith schools, and the APPHG Chair recognised this in her speech laying on record her ‘thanks to Humanists UK for its work exposing the dreadful practices in illegal schools over the past decade.’ Collinge set out the dangers of illegal faith schools for the over 7,000 children and young …

Nigerian faith leaders appeal to US to pressure their country on religious violence

Nigerian faith leaders appeal to US to pressure their country on religious violence

Published by skeptic

NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS) — Nearly four years ago, the Biden administration removed Nigeria from a list of countries whose threats to religious freedom are of “particular concern,” but continued attacks on Christians and other religious groups by Islamist militias have prompted calls from local faith leaders and members of the U.S. Congress for the designation to be restored. In Africa’s most populous nation, a deadly cycle of violence has unfolded for several years, with Christian clergy and laypeople as well as moderate Muslims falling victim to murder and kidnapping. The Christian nonprofit Open Doors recently reported that in 2024 some 3,100 Christians were killed and more than 2,000 kidnapped in Nigeria. On Wednesday (March 12), U.S. Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, held a hearing on religious freedom violations in Nigeria that included testimony from Catholic Bishop Wilfred Anagbe of the Diocese of Makurdi, in central Nigeria, and Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, a former U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom commissioner. Anagbe accused the …

amendments to limit faith selection and end compulsory worship

amendments to limit faith selection and end compulsory worship

Published by skeptic

All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group Members Ian Sollom MP and Cat Eccles MP have tabled amendments to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill as it enters report stage in the House of Commons. These would maintain the 50% cap on faith selection for all new state faith schools and end compulsory Christian worship in schools without a religious character. Humanists UK has welcomed the amendments. Extending the 50% faith selection cap to all new schools Liberal Democrat MP Ian Sollom has tabled an amendment that would maintain the limit on faith schools being able to select students on the basis of their religion at 50% of places when the school is oversubscribed. A similar amendment by fellow Liberal Democrat Munira Wilson MP was debated and voted down by Labour MPs during committee stage. The Government is maintaining the 50% faith selection cap on new free schools with a religious character, but by lifting the current restriction that all new schools should be free schools or academies, new state faith schools will open that are allowed to …

Most Greenlanders are Lutheran, 300 years after a missionary brought the faith to the remote island

Most Greenlanders are Lutheran, 300 years after a missionary brought the faith to the remote island

Published by skeptic

NUUK, Greenland (AP) — Most Greenlanders are proudly Inuit, having survived and thrived in one of most remote and climatically inhospitable places on Earth. And they’re Lutheran. About 90% of the 57,000 Greenlanders identify as Inuit and the vast majority of them belong to the Lutheran Church today, more than 300 years after a Danish missionary brought that branch of Christianity to the world’s largest island. For many, their devotion to ritual and tradition is as much a part of what it means to be a Greenlander as is their fierce deference to the homeland. The one so many want U.S. President Donald Trump to understand is not for sale despite his threats to seize it. Greenland is huge — about three times the size of Texas; most of it covered in ice. Still, its 17 parishes are located across many settlements in the icy land and people endure the frigid Arctic climate to fill up church pews on Sundays. Some even tune in to radio-transmitted services on their phones on a break from fishing …