The Bishops were right to claim in their recent national pastoral letter on education that Catholic Voluntary Aided schools provide some of the best education available in the state sector. But the focus of that letter, and the Bishops’ comments on the recent agreement between the government and faith bodies, suggest that more thinking needs to be done on Catholic education in the UK. For example, why did the pastoral letter champion collaboration between the Church and the state and not examine the role of schools in supporting parents in their duty as prime educators? The stated justifications for Catholic schools were the long collaboration of the Church with the political authorities and the quality of the education provided. The only substantive mention of parents was a plea that they should support Catholic schools that are provided for them by politicians in partnership with the Church institutions.
Perhaps the letter was a pragmatic response to the hostile climate that has developed in Westminster towards the whole concept of religious schools – indeed towards religion. Perhaps by laying out the benefits of religious schools, and their willingness to cooperate with the state, the Bishops thought that they could try to influence political opinion in their favour. The agreement between the government and religious bodies about faith schools might be taken as an indication of success.
But what the Bishops must do, privately or publicly, is think about the long term, survey the wider scene and lay down the important principles that should underpin education policy in a society that allows parents and families to undertake their proper roles.
The wider scene is bleak but hopeful. There is little appetite in Westminster for the status quo of the traditional Voluntary Aided faith schools alongside local authority schools, despite recent proposals to expand faith-based education. Secularists and moral relativists within government – amongst politicians, bureaucrats and advisers – see the system as an anomaly and a privilege that is granted to an increasingly irrelevant and outmoded group of people. We might see secularism and moral relativism as outmoded but they are the strongest forces on today’s political scene! If the Catholic Church is wedded to the voluntary aided model then it will probably be lucky to see Catholic schools survive three more general elections.
The good news is that many, though perhaps not the majority, of politicians would like education to burst out of its current state-guided strait jacket. This could manifest itself in different ways. Moderate Labour politicians are keen to promote City Academies and specialist schools. Many Conservatives wish to see genuine parental autonomy.
It is quite possible that we will see Catholic schools thrive in new Labour’s world of City Academies, trust schools, specialist schools and so on, but probably with increasing state control of admissions policies and the curriculum. The Catholic aspect of our schools would be diluted. This is clearly happening, within the framework of the recent agreement between government and faith bodies on education.
More fundamental reform offers the better hope and the Bishops do need to champion some fundamental Catholic principles of education policy which were absent from the Pastoral letter. The correct justification for faith schools is not the one given in the pastoral letter but their importance in assisting parents in fulfilling their duty to educate their children according to their consciences. Parents and families are the prime educators and the Church and the state are there to provide support. Currently the state does not provide support – it removes virtually all a