A report from the schools inspection body Ofsted this week criticised “faith schools” for failing to provide adequate education in citizenship. Religious schools argue that their “ethos” is sufficient to provide their pupils with the necessary citizenship skills, but Ofsted says that the subject must be taught in a way that can be assessed.
The report says: “The problem in some schools is that…citizenship (is) almost invisible in the curriculum itself. Particularly in the early days of citizenship as a new subject, many headteachers claimed their ethos as a main plank of their citizenship provision. Especially in faith schools, they cited the ethical and moral values of their pupils as evidence of effective provision. In these schools, headteachers may well point to the demeanour of their pupils as good citizens in a general sense, and to all the parts of their school’s work that contribute to this; but they have missed the point that National Curriculum citizenship is now a subject that is taught, learned, assessed and practised.”
Keith Porteous Wood of the National Secular Society said: “We welcomed the introduction of citizenship into the school curriculum, but spoke out at the beginning of our fear that it would be swamped by claims that religion underpins good citizenship. That hasn’t happened, but it is now clear that religious schools are burying citizenship lessons because they pose a real threat to the idea that religion has all the answers. We sincerely hope that Ofsted will ensure that religious schools fulfil their duty with no less ardour than it chases schools that fail to fulfil all their statutory requirements in relation to forced religious worship and religious education.”
NSS September 2006