There are hundreds, possibly thousands, of unregulated schools operating around the country hiding behind the mantle of home education. This are being run by religious fundamentalists. Their aim is to indoctrinate children.
They are being run by Islamic, Jewish, Christian, Hindu and other faiths.
They are reinforcing separation and intolerance.
Some of them are teaching that homosexuality is an abomination, that slavery and rape can be condoned, that English culture is decadent, that evolution is wrong and that only they are the purveyors of truth, the only religion that is correct, the chosen people.
The curriculum of many is firmly fixed on a narrow religious content. Nothing else is important.
Is this want we want for Britain’s children?
It certainly is not the vision I would like to see.
I want to see our children integrated in a multicultural environment based on tolerance and British values.
I want religion either totally out of school or taught as a comparative study of the major faiths.
I do not want children separated and indoctrinated.
These ‘schools’ need to be carefully monitored, subjected to the same rules and regulations as mainstream schools and inspected. If they are found to be indoctrinating, teaching inaccurate information, promoting unBritish values or not having good educational standards, they should be shut down.
I agree with you on your main point but I see it as being impractical. I have just read about a school in East London where an “administrator” was teaching young male teenagers to be jihadists with a view to carrying out attacks in London. Ofsted had rated the school as outstanding!!
Most religions have positive life messages which inculcate moral and communal values in young people, eg. relief for the poor and welcoming strangers into your home. I suspect that you have a bias through being a professed atheist and don’t wish to countenance anyone believing in a god, whatever form. I attended a Christian Sunday School from a young age, as did many other children. I never felt I was being indoctrinated and if that was the intent, then it failed dismally. We were taught compassion and empathy for others which I feel are essential values for everyone. We were also taught the history of Christianity and how some people were mistreated. Maybe Sunday School teaching should have been compulsory for the greedy capitalists who exploit others for self-enrichment.
How come impractical?
No school should be outside the jurisdiction of the education system surely? They should all be properly supervised and regulated.
Those undergoing home tuition should also be properly supervised and checked. Children’s education is too important to do otherwise.
I have no problem with positive life messages; I have a problem with blatant indoctrination – the fundamentalist Jewish, Muslim and Evangelical Christian schools where the kids learn and recite religious texts, are taught religious belief as facts and are incited to regard pother religions as lesser. Some of those are breeding grounds for segregation, intolerance and radical beliefs.
I don’t mind comparative religion being taught in schools. I do not even mind discussion on mindless stupidities like creationism.
My school ran on sound moral foundations of a secular nature, and comparative religion. All faiths and none were treated with respect and we respected all cultures and faiths in the classroom without losing sight of the overarching British values of tolerance, freedom and democracy. I believe that is the way it should be.
I too read about that Jihadist group teaching kids. That should never be allowed to have happened. The school and Ofsted all need dealing with severely. There’s no excuse. But I bet a number of those unregulated schools are hotbeds for the same radicalisation.
It’s impractical because there are too many to monitor (and I’m not including places of worship which run their own classes) & too many hidden either completely or behind a veneer of a good teaching curriculum. What do you propose – banning private teaching? If you do that, you will simply drive it underground where it is likely to be more extreme and therefore potentially more dangerous.
There’s a register of all children Bede. If people want to educate at home they should have to pay for the monitoring. Children deserve that. This indoctrination programme and poor quality education is no way to treat children. It needs careful consideration.
Opher, I’m not referring to home education. For example, classes are held privately in Islamic studies and Bible studies are held by different Christian sects. The authorities are not notified of these and therefore what is being taught is not monitored by the authorities.
Yes I know. I find it very sinister.