Education

Throughout the current debate about faith schools and the Conservatives' determination to muck about with our education system so that we have more "academies" run as faith-based independent schools at public expense, the example of Northern Ireland has been conveniently ignored. One of the main reasons why the Troubles lasted so long was because of religious segregation. Those of different faiths or no faith were largely invisible. Several generations of children went to segregated schools, continuing to demonize each other and never mixing.

The integrated schools movement started in 1981 with the foundation of Lagan College, thanks to the efforts of parents who wanted a better way of life for their children. Read more about it on the website of the Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education, and ask yourselves why so many people in England are determined to move in the opposite direction?

Thank you if you emailed your MP about the Academies Bill in response to an urgent appeal a few days ago, but it doesn't look as though we've had much success. One of our members had an email from his MP, as follows:

Thank you for your email ... and I note your concerns.

However, I have a different view to you on this matter and am a great advocate of faith schools.

I think you will find that there are safeguards for a balanced curriculum and I will not be tabling any amendments.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Therese Coffey MP
Suffolk Coastal

The Academies Bill is being rushed through Parliament with undue haste to try to get it sorted before the summer recess, which starts on 27 July. Amendments tabled by Dr Julian Huppert MP, vice chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Humanist Group, would have prevented or restricted religious discrimination in the new Academies’ admissions policies.

I enjoy visiting schools and talking to students but I'm so glad I'm not a teacher any more. All the teachers I know have complained about frequent changes of government policy, masses of paperwork, and SATs testing (Standard Attainment Tests), which have reduced young children to gibbering wrecks with the stress.

I'm glad I'm not the parent of a school-age child either. There's been a lot of talk about parental choice, but from what I've read, your choices have been limited. If you're not religious, for example, and all the local schools have a religious ethos, you can either do what many parents do, and pretend to be religious to get your child into the best school, judged by its exam results and Ofsted reports, or what? Find the money to transport your child to a school that's free from religion? It's become so complicated that pushy parents are having to devote a lot of time to researching their options.

In 1925, one of the most unusual trials ever seen in a United States courtroom took place. Earlier that year, the state of Tennessee had passed the Butler Act, which made the teaching of evolution illegal. In the stifling July heat, and in a courtroom hung with banners proclaiming 'Read Your Bible Daily', 24-year-old teacher John Scopes stood trial.

A few of the stories that have caught my eye on the Interweb this week:

* As an antidote to the depressing news that a significant proportion of British people think that creationism ought to be included in school science lessons, we can celebrate a development in education. Evolution will be in the national curriculum for primary schools when the new version is published soon. Andrew Copson from the BHA wrote in the Guardian:

The new primary curriculum, together with the 2007 government guidance that prohibits the teaching of creationism and intelligent design in science lessons, should put English schools in the forefront of education about evolution. Coming in the month which marks the 150th anniversary of On the Origin of Species, and at a point when good science education is a matter of urgency, it could not be more timely.

* We will have to remain vigilant, however, when loonies of all sorts seek access to our classrooms. The Times Educational Supplement reported a couple of days ago that ...

A school initiative that trains children in “energy therapy” has been criticised as unscientific by two senior academics.

The discussion about creationism in school science lessons on BBC Radio Suffolk is now online.

It's on James Hazell's programme, 26th October, about 35 minutes in. You have 7 days to listen.

I was on BBC Radio Suffolk today, talking about the MORI poll that shows 54% of Britons think creationism & ID should be taught in school science lessons.

You can listen again via the website. It's on the James Hazell programme, from about 10.10am. The other contributor was Prof. Michael Reiss, who resigned from his role as the Royal Society's director of Education over the issue.

Listen to the phone-in after the interviews.