The Church of Scotland has raised concern that allowing children to override their parents’ decision to withdraw them from Religious Education (RE) could “exacerbate” family tensions.
Revd Stephen Miller, co-ordinator of the denomination’s education and schools group, told the Scottish Parliament’s Human Rights, Equalities and Civil Justice Committee that the Scottish Government’s proposals do not “seem sensible or desirable in obtaining a harmonious solution”.
Under the Children (Withdrawal from Religious Education and Amendment of UNCRC Compatibility Duty) (Scotland) Bill, parents would still be able to withdraw their child from RE but the child could overrule this decision.
‘Important safeguard’
The Christian Institute’s Head of Education John Denning said the Bill’s “fundamental misunderstanding of the relationship between parental rights and children’s rights” could be “profoundly damaging for pupils, parents, and schools”.
He emphasised that “parental rights are the principal means by which children’s rights are protected and upheld. Parents are recognised in international law as the primary advocates for and guardians of children. To disempower parents by creating a conflict with the child’s rights is to weaken the most important safeguard a child has.”
Mr Denning warned that the proposals would also place “an impossible burden on schools”, where teachers would be forced to “act as arbiters in family matters” and children could be “pressured or coaxed by peers, or even school staff, to express a view that is not truly their own, undermining the very autonomy the Bill purports to protect”.
In conclusion, he explained that the proposals impose “a statutory assumption of conflict between children and their parents, into which it suggests schools should interpose themselves. This undermines the family unit that human rights law seeks to protect.”
Humanism
In England and Wales, Peers have warned that forcing humanism on schools would undermine Britain’s Christian heritage.
During the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill’s Committee Stage in the House of Lords last month, Peers debated amendments to scrap Christian assemblies in non-faith schools and require Religious Education to teach about “non-religious beliefs” such as humanism.
Currently, state-funded schools in England and Wales must conduct acts of collective worship that are “wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character”. In England, RE must be “in the main Christian”. In both cases, parents have the right of withdrawal.
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