Schools in Wales can't be bothered with "collective worship"

School inspectors in Wales are reported to be using a stopwatch to time how long pupils spend on "personal reflection" to ensure schools meet the law on acts of worship. Anything less than 20 seconds reflection and the school can fail, according to the Association of School and College Leaders.

Gareth Jones, secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders Cymru, said spiritual and moral education was important but the legislation surrounding it too stringent. Believing the Welsh Assembly should use its new lawmaking powers to relax rules, he wants secondary schools to provide regular rather than daily acts of collective worship.

The Church in Wales' education officer the Rev Edwin Counsell said 20 seconds was "a cop-out" and not long enough to be meaningful. Under the Education Act secondary schools are required to hold daily acts of worship but many do not. Estyn's most recent annual report shows one in six schools broke that law in 2005-06.

The Western Mail reports: "Heads say guidelines are unclear and report cases of inspectors arguing among themselves about what constitutes an act of worship.

"When we had an inspection not all the inspectors were looking for the same thing," a deputy head, claimed. "There were discussions about whether there should be mention of a deity and then discussion within the group of inspectors about what they were looking for."

Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, said: "Twenty seconds? As long as that? No wonder the churches are up in arms as they see their grip on the minds of children beginning to slip. And if there are going to be changes in the requirements for forced worship in schools, then we call for a complete abolition of the requirement."

NSS June 2007