Letter to Gordon Brown

Labour Humanists recently wrote to Gordon Brown and Ed Balls to express our concern over the Government's failure to ensure that a hindrance to humanists' participation on SACREs be lifted in new guidance. The Tory introduction of Circular 1/94 barred full membership to humanists on SACREs, the local authority committees that oversee RE in community schools.

 

You can see our letter to the PM below. The failure to update this guidance is at odds with the inclusion of Humanism in the RE syllabus - on this Government's advice.

 

Labour Humanists have also voiced our concerns about this matter to the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, highlighting this present discrepancy.

 

For more information on the British Humanist Association's education work please see here.

 

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Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP

10 Downing Street

London SW1A 2AA

                                                                                            20th July 2009

 

Dear Gordon

 

Labour Humanists are very disappointed and concerned about the failure of the new draft guidance on Religious Education published by the DCSF on 30th April to resolve the longstanding injustice of discrimination against humanists in this area.

 

As you know, it was a Conservative government in 1994 that issued guidance advising that humanists be prohibited from full membership of Standing Advisory Councils on Religious Education (SACREs – the local authority committees that oversee RE in community schools) and Agreed Syllabus Conferences (ASCs – the committees that write the RE syllabus every five years for community schools). As a result, many humanists who had given years of service were either thrown off SACREs or demoted to a non-voting, co-opted membership. In the following years, Labour people were in the forefront of opposing this injustice and happily, since 1998 with the passing of the Human Rights Act, humanists have begun to find their place as full members again on SACREs and ASCs. The inclusion of Humanism for study in the non-statutory framework for RE gave a further boost to inclusivity in the subject, but the fact that Circular 1/94 remained in force meant that many SACREs and ASCs still felt unable to appoint humanists as members of SACREs and ASCs, and also gave cover to those who, for reasons of prejudice, did not wish to do so.

 

We understand (though we regret) the decision not to review the primary legislation on RE which continues to cause so many problems in this subject, but when the review of Circular 1/94 was initially announced, we confidently expected that the matter of humanists on SACREs and ASCs would be resolved by reference to the Human Rights Act, which clearly allows – even mandates – an  interpretation of the law on membership of SACREs (which is given in the law as representatives of ‘religions’) to read ‘religions and beliefs’ and include humanists.

 

Sadly, your department has not taken this course.  As a result, we are left with a situation where government advises that syllabuses should include Humanism, but bars humanists from sitting on the committees that write the syllabus and oversee its delivery. Under the present system, even very small religions such as paganism or scientology would have a right to site on SACREs – but not representatives of significant worldviews that are actually studied in RE, such as humanists.

 

As a matter of urgency, we would ask you to correct this great injustice, which will bring a new threat to the position of non-religious beliefs in RE, to the detriment of young people in our schools. We would urge you to have the inclusion of humanists as of right on SACREs and ASCs written into the new guidance, and if that is not possible, then not to issue the guidance but re-consider the decision not to review the primary legislation on RE. The opportunity to correct longstanding injustices such as this does not come frequently enough to miss.

 

We believe that this letter reflects a view shared by very many interested people. We would encourage you to meet with Labour Humanists or the British Humanist Association to discuss this further.

 

Adam Harrison 

                                                                          

Secretary, Labour Humanists                                                              

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