As part of a series focusing on election issues, ePolitix features BHA Head of Public Affairs, Naomi Phillips, on ending religious privilege in education.

The British Humanist Association campaigns for an inclusive education system, where students and staff are not discriminated against because of their religion or belief, and where children are provided with a balanced and objective education that prepares them for life in a pluralistic society. This is what we want and what we believe the law should ensure, but unfortunately in many schools this is not the case.

Around a third of the state schools in Britain are faith schools. Most of these schools can show favour to and discriminate against pupils in their admissions, and to teachers in their recruitment and employment, on the basis of their religious beliefs. Most can also provide religious education that does not have to teach about a broad range of beliefs and values, but can teach that their world view is the true one.

More generally, all state schools in England and Wales are required to provide a daily act of collective worship that is ‘wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character’. Furthermore, state schools do not have to provide age-appropriate sex and relationships education beyond the basic sex education provided in science lessons (or at all in Scotland). It is little wonder that the UK has the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in Western Europe.

Continues: http://www.epolitix.com/latestnews/article-detail/newsarticle/education-ending-religious-privilege/