Accord has welcomed the launch of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation’s education programme, but questioned whether schools that discriminate in their admissions can ever live up to its principles.

The project aims to support Religious Education (RE) in order to “create understanding, overcome prejudice and open the gates of dialogue”. However, when he was Prime Minister Tony Blair supported the expansion of faith schools able to discriminate in their admissions and employment rules, and to teach one-sided RE lessons.

Supporters of inclusive education hope that the new project marks a change of direction and are pleased that the school chosen to lead the scheme in the UK is a school with open admissions procedures and that follows the locally agreed syllabus for RE*.

Accord Coalition Chair Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain said:

“There is a great deal about this new initiative that we welcome. We, too, are convinced that religious education has an important role to play in helping young people to think about, discuss and respect the diversity of views and identities that exist in the world. Any project that seeks to build dialogue and knowledge about different beliefs among young people should be encouraged.”

“However, we are concerned that the Foundation has ignored some issues closer to home, such as the damage done to community cohesion by allowing schools to discriminate in their admissions on the grounds of religion”

“We hope that Tony Blair’s recent work in this area has led him to think afresh about how inclusive admissions and a broad RE curriculum can benefit children and communities, whatever their beliefs.”

The launch of the new education project comes a day after the release of a YouGov poll (8 June 2009) by the Accord Coalition, which found that 57% of people ‘agreed or strongly agreed’ that “state funded schools that select students by their religion undermine community cohesion”, while only 19% ‘disagreed or strongly disagreed’.
The poll also found that:

• 72% ‘agreed or strongly agreed’ that “all state funded schools should operate recruitment and employment policies that do not discriminate on grounds of religion or belief”, with only 9 % disagreeing or strongly disagreeing.

• 75% ‘agreed or strongly agreed’ that “all state funded schools should teach an objective and balanced syllabus for education about a wide range of religious and non-religious beliefs”, with 8% disagreeing or strongly disagreeing

Editors’ notes
1. *There is no national curriculum for RE. Community and voluntary controlled schools follow an RE syllabus that is decided locally by religious leaders and locally councillors. Voluntary aided religious schools are free to teach RE in accordance with their denomination and do not have to teach about other beliefs. Westhoughton High School is the UK “lead school” for the Tony Blair Faith Foundation.
2. All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 2083 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 3rd – 5th June 2009. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+).