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Anorak News | The Crusade For Good Education

The Crusade For Good Education

by | 14th, March 2006

‘TIME has ticked by and baby is now ready for school. Problem is that the local private institution is too dear and, according to the league tables, the state comprehensive is in the relegation zone.

Keith and Joyce would do anything to get their Armani into school

Luckily, there is the Church of England school. As the Times reports, faith schools represent 18 per cent of all secondaries, but 42 per cent of the top 200. It’s an easy choice.

And so off Hannah Feinberg goes, to join Mustapha Islam, Philomena Murphy and other mums and dads keen to do right by their kids at the vicar’s flower arranging class.

They know that the local Church of England school offers the best state education in their area, and such is the points system of entry, they need to prove their Christian credentials by attending Church and doing Churchy things.

But what else can they do? Should they profess a firm belief in creationism? What about muttering about a Papist plot and a Jewish conspiracy? Getting it right is no easy matter.

So the Telegraph says that the Archbishop of Canterbury will tell the National Church Schools conference that he wants to standardise admissions criteria across the Church’s 4,700 schools.

As Canon John Hall, the Church of England’s chief education officer, tells the paper: ‘The intention is not to reduce the number of places for Christian children but to clarify and simplify admissions.’

And one way may be to ask if the child has been baptised. Of course, the great and good can sniff out the sulphurous stench of the uncleansed with ease. But if you can provide proof, then so much the better.

And none of this is to say that the Church of England school will only take children from a certain social band. The Archbishop says Church schools offer the “broadest possible’ range of ideas. Sure, they do – although parents and pupils may care to note that while there are many ideas, there is only one true answer.

The Archbishop continues: “Church schools are among the relatively few public institutions generally regarded with trust by minority religious communities. And it is this which gives the lie to any idea that faith schools are nurseries of bigotry.”

Of course, they are not nurseries. They are schools. And schools with some wonderfully arranged flowers and piously rubbed brasses…’



Posted: 14th, March 2006 | In: Uncategorized Comment | TrackBack | Permalink