Interview - Jay Harman

What is the Government proposing to do about changing the admissions process for new state-funded faith schools?

Since 2007, all new religious academies and free schools have been required to leave at least half of their places open to local children, irrespective of religion or belief. This has become known as the 50 per cent cap on religious selection.

Unfortunately, the Government has now proposed to drop the cap, largely at the behest of certain groups in the religious lobby. It has effectively given the go-ahead to a new generation of segregated, single-faith enclaves, and denied a huge number of children the opportunity to grow up alongside those from a variety of backgrounds.

What does the research evidence show about the success of the cap?

Our own research, based on the same official data used by the Department for Education, found that religious schools subject to the cap are significantly more ethnically diverse than 100 per cent religious selection schools. For example, Christian schools opened under the cap take a lot more Asian pupils than those that opened before it. In other words, the cap is working, contrary to what the Government claims. We complained to the UK Statistics Authority that the Government’s figures were misleading in this area and they agreed, forcing it to update the consultation paper.

And removing the cap doesn’t just threaten religious/ethnic integration, but social mobility too. It has long been established that religiously selective schools admit a disproportionately low number of children from poorer backgrounds, and the cap has therefore served to reduce socio-economic segregation. Throwing that progress away because a few religious groups won’t operate even half-inclusive schools, paid for by public money, is a huge shame.  
 
What did the Accord Coalition’s poll find about people’s views on religious selection in state schools?

Accord is a wide coalition of organisations, including religious groups, which Humanists UK helped to co-found, and which works towards making the education system more inclusive of all families. Populus carried out a poll of more than 2,000 people. It found that 80 per cent – including 79 per cent of Anglicans and 67 per cent of Catholics – are opposed to extending the freedom to use faith-based criteria in admission arrangements. In other words, religious and non-religious people alike recognise that both children and society are best served when people from a range of backgrounds are brought together to learn.

That is exactly what the cap sought to achieve, so what the poll shows is that the national organisations that lobbied for its removal are both out of touch with the people they claim to represent and at odds with the better interests of children.