The Impact of Faith Schools on Education.

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The impact of Faith Schools on Education. Faith schools are an established part of our Education system. They are currently growing; both as a result of new faith sponsored academies and free schools as well as a government policy to further expand provision. This is in contrast to a decline in religious practice. Michael Gove the current education secretary, said faith schools offered parents a genuine choice. Certainly faith schools are generally oversubscribed. Parents perceive faith schools to achieve superior academic standards. Faith schools originated some 200 years ago in England, in response to the Church of England, and other denominations, who felt it their moral obligation to provide education for all, especially “the poorest” and most venerable (Chadwick 2012). In 1944 church schools were incorporated into the state system through the 1944 Education Act. Since the Education Act of 1944, all schooling, and specifically secondary education became free to all pupils. There has since been much political argument, in a society that is increasingly secular, of the place of faith schools within a state maintained school system. It is argued that social cohesion is damaged by the existence of faith schools in the state system (Godfrey and Morris, 2008). All faith schools in the UK, until 1997 where either Christian or Jewish. By 2001, Muslim, Greek Orthodox, Seventh Day Evangelist, and Sikh faith schools where available (Reed 2006). More recently a Hindu school has opened (BBC 2008). The National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) study by Schagens did report some weakness in the evidence that academic standards in faith schools perform better than non faith schools. Only a small increase in performance was reported, it was suggested this was a result of the hidden selection (Pring 2005). Current education policy aims to raise
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