children to practise their faith
State schools must allow children to practise their faith by inviting in preachers such as imams and introducing prayer rooms and religious holidays, the country's biggest teaching union said yesterday.
They should make arrangements for pupils to be given "instruction" in their own religion during the normal school day and rights to pray and worship instead of attending regular assemblies, the National Union of Teachers said.
Schools should also allow different uniform rules, serve meals that meet religious requirements such as halal and kosher, plan holidays around festivals and special days and provide private prayer rooms.
The call comes as new research today shows the numbers attending mosques in England and Wales will outstrip Roman Catholic churchgoers by 2020.
Christian Research expects Catholic worshippers at Sunday Mass to fall to 679,000 but Muslims at Friday prayer to increase to 683,000. The figures also suggest the number of Muslims at mosques will overtake Church of England members at Sunday services.
Under today's radical plan from teachers' leaders, designed to overhaul faith-based education, the NUT called on ministers to abandon the historic daily act of Christian worship in favour of "inclusive" school assemblies.
Existing faith schools should be stripped of rights to select pupils on the basis of the religion they practise to prevent them "discriminating" against others and fuelling community tensions, the document said.
The blueprint, from the most left-wing of the three main teaching unions, is aimed at undermining faith schools by encouraging religious parents to consider non-faith community schools instead.
NUT leaders argued that requiring schools to cater for all religions would limit demand for faith schools and bring children of different backgrounds together. Read more ...
They should make arrangements for pupils to be given "instruction" in their own religion during the normal school day and rights to pray and worship instead of attending regular assemblies, the National Union of Teachers said.
Schools should also allow different uniform rules, serve meals that meet religious requirements such as halal and kosher, plan holidays around festivals and special days and provide private prayer rooms.
The call comes as new research today shows the numbers attending mosques in England and Wales will outstrip Roman Catholic churchgoers by 2020.
Christian Research expects Catholic worshippers at Sunday Mass to fall to 679,000 but Muslims at Friday prayer to increase to 683,000. The figures also suggest the number of Muslims at mosques will overtake Church of England members at Sunday services.
Under today's radical plan from teachers' leaders, designed to overhaul faith-based education, the NUT called on ministers to abandon the historic daily act of Christian worship in favour of "inclusive" school assemblies.
Existing faith schools should be stripped of rights to select pupils on the basis of the religion they practise to prevent them "discriminating" against others and fuelling community tensions, the document said.
The blueprint, from the most left-wing of the three main teaching unions, is aimed at undermining faith schools by encouraging religious parents to consider non-faith community schools instead.
NUT leaders argued that requiring schools to cater for all religions would limit demand for faith schools and bring children of different backgrounds together. Read more ...
Source: The Evening Standard
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