| Topic: | Re:Re:Re::Re:Other local secondaries | |
| Posted by: | Richard Greenhough | |
| Date/Time: | 03/11/05 19:10:00 |
| "....co-educational LEA controlled schools which he is advocating..." Can't recall advocating them per se - actually in general I am in favour of selection by ability, a.k.a. the old grammar school system, which at least was fair in giving a chance to all pupils without a need to test them on their (and their parents) religious beliefs. If you want to argue that that system created an underclass and discriminated against the less academically gifted, fair enough, but if the present system allows state-funded religious schools to act ipso facto as grammar schools then I would argue that academic selection is a lot fairer than religious selection. My primary point remains that my taxes are being used to fund a school from which my children are barred due to their not being of the right religious faith - which I regard as much the same as their being barred because they do not belong to the right racial group, as was once widely condemned when practised in the US South and in South Africa. I do not want to drag everyone down to any low level, I would just like equality of opportunity within the state system. At present, a Catholic in Chiswick has schooling options open to him/her within the state school system which are closed to non-Catholics. This seems wrong. When I was at a school with a basic CofE system, Catholics and Jews were treated exactly the same as CofE pupils, other than being allowed to miss the religious service in morning assembly. If Gunnersbury wants to retain state funding it should be forced to enrol non-Catholics, provided that they (and their parents) accept the other requirements of the school with regard to behaviour etc. If the school is not willing to agree to this, then it should no longer be a part of the state school system. |