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UK Teachers Attack “Intolerant” Faith Schools

By Gudrun Schultz

GATESHEAD, United Kingdom, April 12, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) –The Association of Teachers and Lecturers called faith schools an “assault on tolerance” at the annual conference yesterday, and said they want to see an end to state funding for the schools by 2020.

 National executive member Hank Roberts said faith schools are “stirring up a lot of problems for the future in terms of a rise in fundamentalism,” reported the BBC today.

Mr. Roberts supported a motion calling for new laws to prevent religious organizations from gaining further influence over state schools, and demanding action to stop faith groups teaching “creationism or intelligent design as valid alternatives to evolution.”

Defending the scientific theory of Darwinian evolution, scientists with The Royal Society said, “Young people are poorly served by deliberate attempts to withhold, distort or misrepresent scientific knowledge and understanding in order to promote particular religious beliefs.”

Faith schools in the UK have been promoted under Prime Minister Tony Blair, and parents have expressed enthusiasm for the project. Along with granting government funding to the schools, the education reforms under way will allow faith groups, charities and private business owners to sponsor schools, influencing the curriculum and emphasis of the institutions.

The head of a Catholic primary school told the BBC yesterday that faith schools have much to offer in helping to create moral and decent citizens.

Susan Berti said such schools do not create social divisions, and said fears about the teaching of creationism were based on misunderstanding.

“In Catholic schools we take what is written in the Bible into account and look at God as our creator but we would be accepting that Darwinism can have a place within God’s plan,” she said.

Ms. Berti said it is a basic freedom to be able to education children within a particular religious context.

“It is something that was fought very hard for by the bishops of England and Wales in the 19th century. They felt it was more important to build schools at that stage than to build churches because it was felt that education would empower children which we know it does.”

Children who are educated in a faith-based school have been found on average to perform significantly higher academically than their counterparts in secular institutions.

See related LifeSiteNews coverage:

UK to Force State-Funded Faith-Based Schools to Admit Students of Other Religions
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/jan/06011708.html

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