Creationism-teaching evangelical school is just the latest ‘faith-based’ free school
An evangelical church, which intends to teach creationism as part of its science curriculum, has submitted a proposal to open a free school in Nottinghamshire.
The Everyday Champions Church in Newark handed its plans to open a 625-pupil secondary school in the area to the Department for Education last week.
… Pastor Gareth Morgan, the church leader and the driving force behind the free school bid, confirmed that creationism would be taught across the curriculum, should the school be given the green light.
… According to the British Humanist Association (BHA), seven out of 10 free school applications have a faith-based ethos.
BHA head of public affairs Naomi Phillips said schools such as the Everyday Champions Academy reaffirmed the association’s concerns over free schools.
“This type of school holds up our fear from when Michael Gove first put forward his proposals – that they would be schools with faith-based and sometimes extreme views that would largely be applying to take over the running of our state-funded schools,” Ms Phillips said.
“This is despite Michael Gove saying that the Government would protect against creationists and other extreme religions … It’s clear there are no such protections in place.”
Full story: http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6069260
The British Humanist Association has consistently opposed state-funded ‘faith’ schools for many years.
It was exactly this sort of threat that got me actively involved in secular humanism in the late 1990s, whereas before that I was happy to tolerate people with daft religious views as harmless ecccentrics. But when they start to be handed control of the educational system to spread their wilful ignorance they can no longer be disregarded as harmless. It baffles me why successive governments seem to be increasingly placing such opportunities for for proselytisation in the hands of “faith” biased organisations, and moreover largely funding them from the public purse.