All faith schools must actively promote values says education secretary

Education secretary Nicky Morgan says faith schools must ‘actively promote’ British values of tolerance for other religions and lifestyles.

Faith schools must follow rules that “actively promote” fundamental British values, such as tolerance of other faiths and lifestyles, and law, Nicky Morgan, the education secretary, warned. The Department for Education, however, dismissed any suggestion that schools would be forced to teach gay rights against their will.

Morgan, said it was “crucial” that Christian and Jewish schools, as well as Muslim ones, followed the new rules, which require the promotion of fundamental values, such as tolerance of other faiths and lifestyles, democracy and the rule of law.

A high-profile Jewish school for girls in Salford was punished and downgraded from good to inadequate by Osted inspectors for failing under the new rules. Following a no-notice inspection, Beis Yaakov secondary school was placed into special measures.

The inspection report said there were “major gaps in students’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Students are not provided with sufficient opportunities to learn about or understand people of other faiths or cultures.

“The school does not promote adequately students’ awareness and tolerance of communities which are different to their own. As a result, the school does not prepare students adequately for life in modern Britain.”

But the DfE dismissed as “complete nonsense” the interpretation that Morgan’s remarks meant faith schools would have to teach gay rights. A DfE spokesman said: “It is complete nonsense to say that schools are being forced to ‘teach gay rights’ against their will.

“Osted inspectors are rightly ensuring that schools do not indoctrinate pupils about gay people or any other people being inferior. The same goes for schools that do things like make girls sit separately at the back of the class. Both are practices which go directly against the fundamental British values of tolerance and respect.

“We believe schools should prepare all pupils for life in modern day which is broad and balanced and a curriculum is vital for this.”

Tristram Hunt, the shadow education secretary, criticized the DfE for tweeting: Nonsense to say schools ‘must teach gay rights’. We want schools to teach broad curriculum based on British values.

“Nicky Morgan clearly does not believe that lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender rights are values, they should be compulsory sex and relationship education, including LGBT rights, in all schools is common sense, not nonsense,” he said.