BHA: Racial and religious discrimination in ‘faith schools’ admissions is damaging to our society

The British Humanist Association (BHA) has today commented on a Court of Appeal judgment that has found the admissions criteria of the Jewish Free School (JFS) in breach of the Race Relations Act 1976. The Court of Appeal found that the qualification for admission to the school is a test of ethnicity and not religion and therefore that JFS has discriminated on racial grounds in its admissions.

The BHA, which intervened in the High Court case against the school in 2008 and in the Court of Appeal, says the case illuminates the wide discrimination in admissions that state-funded ‘faith schools’ believe they are permitted to employ.

Andrew Copson, BHA Director of Education and Public Affairs, said, ‘JFS will admit pupils that are not religiously Jewish – they can be atheists or Muslims or Christians – as long as their mother is Jewish. It is that criterion of ethnicity that is contrary to the Race Relations Act. The judgment makes clear that even though there may be a religious motivation for doing so, discrimination against children in admissions on racial grounds is illegal under any circumstances.’

‘It is our position that there can be no justification for discrimination on racial or religious grounds in admissions to any state-maintained school. Even where schools do legally discriminate on religious grounds, this can lead to ethnic, socio-economic and religious segregation of pupils in practice and create wider problems for social cohesion and equality. All state-maintained schools should be held to the same standards of equality and non-discrimination in the way they operate as each other and be inclusive, and that means an end to religious discrimination in admissions, in the curriculum and in the staffing of our schools.’

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For further comment or information, contact Naomi Phillips, BHA Public Affairs Officer, at naomi@humanism.org.uk or on 020 7079 3585 or 07779 703 242.

The British Humanist Association (BHA) is the national charity representing and supporting the non-religious and campaigning for an end to religious privilege and to discrimination based on religion or belief. It is the largest organisation in the UK working for a secular state.