Non-religious parents offered an ‘atheists’ school survival guide’ Non-religious parents are being offered a survival guide to help them navigate the schools system, which campaigners complain is being […]

Non-religious parents are being offered a survival guide to help them navigate the schools system, which campaigners complain is being increasingly influenced by various faiths.

The British Humanist Association has produced a booklet that explains parents’ rights and the law around admissions to help them challenge “unlawful and discriminatory practice wherever they find it”.

Around a third of state schools in England and Wales are described as “faith” schools.

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It means parents who do not want their child to be educated in accordance with a religion have around 7,000 fewer schools – 2 million fewer school places – to choose from, according to the BHA.

‘Caught in crossfire’

Andrew Copson, BHA Chief Executive, said parents and young people were being “caught in the crossfire” when it came to religion and education.

“Despite the fact that as a society we are now much more diverse, and much more non-religious, the school system has only become more and more permissive to religious influence in recent years,” he said.

The Government has given the green light to more religious schools opening by allowing faith groups to open their own free schools.

And ministers are poised to scrap existing laws that prevent free schools from selecting 100 per cent pupils on the basis of their faith, as opposed to just 50 per cent under current rules.

The BHA’s booklet, Religion in schools: a guide for non-religious parents and young people in England and Wales spells out parents rights when it comes to collective worship, being taught religious education and school admissions.

Due to the number of faith schools, the BHA claims that such schools can “religiously discriminate in their admission arrangements, employment policies, and delivery of the curriculum, all of which has a deleterious effect on the rights of non-religious parents”.

‘Maligned majority’

Lauren Nicholas, coordinator of the Young Humanists, said non-religious people were becoming the “maligned majority”.

“Well over two-thirds of young people in Britain state that they do not belong to any religion, and nearly half of the population as a whole now say they are non-religious,” Ms Nicholas said.

“And yet, whether it’s being denied access to your local school, being forced to pray to a god you don’t believe in, or being taught a narrow and doctrinaire religious education curriculum, non-religious people have never encountered a more hostile education system than the one they face now.”