One of those curious education announcements which just popped up out of the blue today - a joint statement under the umbrella of the Department for Education and Skills on behalf of the main religious groups in Britain agreeing that faith schools should teach pupils about all religions - not just their own, Rebecca Smithers writes.
Religious leaders have signed a declaration backing the teaching of not only their own religion but an awareness of the "tenets" of other faiths in schools. The signatories to the agreement include the Church of England, the Roman Catholic Church, the Muslim Council of Britain, the Board of Deputies of British Jews and Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist organisations.
There appears to be no question of compulsion. But as ever, timing is everything. Against the backdrop of the furious row over the caricatures of the prophet Mohammed, ministers want a new move towards the teaching of religious tolerance by both Christian and Islamic faith schools. There is also the related issue of a bigger role for faith schools, expected to be unveiled in the government's education bill, now expected to be published next Tuesday.
The government has also singled out faith schools as potentially playing a major role in the setting up of trust schools as outlined in the white paper on education - much to the chagrin of promoters of secular education who fear it will encourage more segregation. The move has already been seized on as the government's latest desperate attempt to kill off backbench concerns about this sensitive issue.
The National Secular Society claimed the announcement was nothing more than a diversionary tactic: "The heat is on faith schools at the moment, and this new announcement is merely an effort to counter accusations that single-faith schools are divisive and a menace to social cohesion. The announcement is, in effect, an admission by the churches that they have used these schools as a means of proselytising their particular faith," said Keith Porteous Wood, Executive Director of the NSS. "Simply devoting a few hours to talking about other religions does nothing to stop the real divisiveness of these schools - which comes from separating children on grounds of religion at an early age, and keeping them separated until they leave school."
