Matters of faith cannot be a solely academic exercise, but compelling children to take part in religious worship is wrong
The question: Should schools require Christian worship?
Since 1944 the law has required that all maintained schools conduct a daily act of worship that is "wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character", in which all pupils participate. This has proved increasingly controversial, and is now the subject of a more concerted campaign from various groups who are seeking to abolish the requirement.
Michael Gove, the education secretary, has recently received letters from various groups, including secularist and humanist campaigners as well as teaching unions, asking him to abolish the requirement. Mouse reckons they have a point, but suggests a more creative way forward, than simply to remove religious experience from schools.
The Church of England opposes change to the law. Back in 2006, when the previous government was looking at reform of this law, the C of E published a paper setting out its "strong support" for the law as it is and opposing change. They make some important points, which put some context around the current requirement.
For example, the requirement is for worship "wholly or mainly" Christian in nature, and the supporting guidance to the act provides significant flexibility in implementation, allowing pupils to experience a diversity of religious beliefs.
The Church document also argues there are significant benefits to pupils in experiencing worship. One duty of schools under the 1944 act is to support the spiritual, cultural and moral development of children. It is hard to imagine how a child's spiritual development can be supported if they never experience any form of worship. The least we can expect of schools is that they prepare children to form their own views in matters of faith, and this cannot be a solely academic exercise, so Mouse agrees that there are benefits in collective worship.
Nevertheless there are some real problems with this requirement, both in principle and in practice.
Starting with the practical point, the main issue is that many schools simply cannot organise this, and so do not. The days of whole-school daily assemblies ended for most schools some years ago, which makes a worship experience difficult to organise at a class level. Only around 25% of secondary schools comply at the moment, although compliance is much higher in primary schools, where whole-school assemblies are more common.
When we come to principle it is rather harder, however.
It is pretty difficult to get away from the issue that compelling children to take part in religious worship is wrong. It simply cannot be right for the state to mandate religion. While there is a right for parents to withdraw their children from collective worship, this is rarely done in practice. There is no right for children to withdraw themselves, except for sixth-formers.
So what would be the best way forward? Mouse reckons that the law should be changed to end the mandatory worship requirement. Instead, schools should be required to allow faith organisations to establish voluntary clubs.
At the moment, despite the legal requirement to hold "broadly" Christian worship, many schools are effectively faith-free zones. It is entirely at the discretion of the headteacher to allow churches or other organisations into a school to conduct assemblies or organise voluntary clubs. Where they oppose this and do not comply with the collective worship requirement, children may be denied a basic opportunity to explore issues of faith for themselves. This means that schools become a hostile environment for religious belief, where children grow up with little knowledge or practical experience of religion. This is not just poor education, but is also dangerous for community relations and a wider understanding of the world.