Beware bias against faith-based education
AS many people will know, Leeds Council is supposedly consulting on ways of reducing the cost of transport in children’s services. It currently costs over £16m a year.
Some of this is statutory, and some non-statutory, and I have no problem with the council looking at ways of reducing that bill. However, it is quite obvious to me that there is a bias against faith-based education, which is wholly wrong and undermines the whole consultation process.
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Hide AdIndeed, parents who have spoken to me, and indeed the reaction from parents at a recent public meeting, suggests that the local education authority has a bias against faith-based education and is seeking to unfairly discriminate in terms of saving money. I am afraid to say, it is a view that I am increasingly coming to share.
In my view, there has long been a bias against faith-based education, in the LEA, then in Education Leeds and now in the LEA again, when in point of fact we should celebrate faith-based education and encourage it.
If readers think that I am perhaps exaggerating, I would advise them to look at Leeds City Council’s executive board report on the subject. It underlines very clearly why people suspect bias in the process. A diverse offering in education, giving parents and pupils the widest possible choice, is in my view essential to an improving educational system.
Bias is simply not acceptable or appropriate.