DfE ‘must drop’ inspection funding agreement with faith groups
by , Schools Week:
The government should “get rid” of an agreement that allows religious groups to receive millions of pounds to inspect their schools and give the money to Ofsted instead.
Faith groups were handed almost £5 million by the Department for Education (DfE) over the past six years to carry out inspections of the religious education in their schools, the National Secular Society (NSS) has found.
The Church of England and Catholic Church took the bulk of £4.9 million given to faith groups to inspect whether the religious education in their schools matched the beliefs of their institutions, Freedom of Information requests revealed.
But faith institutions said Ofsted does not have the expertise to carry out inspections of their religious education.
Paul Barber, director of the Catholic Education Service, said inspecting faith education “requires specialist training and expertise which Ofsted doesn’t provide.”
The DfE funds Ofsted to inspect religious education in secular state schools, so it was fair religious state schools got a contribution from the government to run their own, added Barber. Religious groups then “make up” the rest of the cost themselves.
Related Posts
Tags
Share This
