Lawmakers in the United Kingdom are warning that a new procedure by bureaucrats to inspect organizations that provide teaching to children outside of public school classrooms could mean the government will end up dictating Sunday School lessons.
“This would be an intolerable but very real possibility given the clear desire of the Department for Education to investigate what it calls ‘prohibitive activities’, such as ‘undesirable teaching’ which undermines or is incompatible with fundamental British values,” several members of Parliament said in a letter.
Their letter to the was delivered to the Telegraph, just as a comment period on the plan was coming to a close this week.
The MPs said Christian groups are worried by “the prospect of an Ofsted inspector observing meetings and then imposing sanctions for the expression of traditional views on matters such as marriage – views which, until very recently, were considered mainstream in Britain.”
The letter referred to the “British values” campaign because run by the national Office for Standards in Education.
Reacting to some Muslim madrassas that reportedly were teaching beliefs that conflict with the democratic goals of the United Kingdom, the federal agency has been imposing a “British values” requirement on everyone teaching children across the islands.
While the goal is to prevent the teaching that Christians or Jews are lesser humans, as taught in Islam, the campaign also has caught up some traditional values teachings in the UK, such as the Christian school lessons on fidelity in marriage between one man and one woman.
The Christian Institute, which has been fighting for the religious rights of Christian groups to teach biblical values, explained the comment period was regarding the authority of Ofsted “to regulate certain non-school education settings.”
“Sir Gerald Howarth, Fiona Bruce, David Burrowes and Gary Streeter said the plans could have a ‘seriously detrimental effect on the freedom of religious organizations,’” the group reported.
The end result could be a “challenge” to Christian teachings, the letter said.
“The MPs noted that threats to British values ‘originate overwhelmingly from certain strains of Islam,’” the Institute reported. “They concluded: ‘It is at least disproportionate, if not absurd, to impose intrusive burdens on all other religious groups under the pretense that attempts at radicalization could be discovered in any organization.’”
The goals of the bureaucracy include monitoring “any out-of-school setting providing instruction to under 19-year-olds for more than six hours in any week.”
The Institute said its chief, Colin Hart, “has written to the education secretary saying that the proposals risk catching a vast number of moderate religious activities, and could cause real problems for the volunteers involved.”
The controversy, which began with the 2014 launch of the campaign for “British values,” already has caught up several Christian schools in its web of rules and regulations. They have faced hostile inspectors and pupils have been asked inappropriate questions about sex, the Institute reported.
A department spokeswoman denied to the Telegraph that Sunday Schools would be in the bull’s-eye.
“We are looking specifically at places where children receive intensive education, to ensure that the children there are in a safe environment, which does not subject them to intolerant and hateful views,” she said.
But in fact, Christian school managers have been told that under the rules they must teach other religions, and allow leaders of other religions to interact with their students.
And WND reported a year ago that a Christian school in Britain whose students were grilled by those “hostile” government inspectors about lesbianism had been given the lowest possible rating, even though its students regularly achieve among the highest test scores in the region.
The principal of Grindon Hall Christian School in Sunderland says it’s simply because of an anti-Christian bias.
“We are proud of our school and its staff. We have a Christian ethos which our parents love. We have happy, high achieving pupils, and we are oversubscribed – we always have a lot more applications than we have places, Principal Chris Gray said in a statement released to supporters after the government condemnation of the school.
Nevertheless, Gray said, the approach of the U.K.’s Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills, “to us was negative at every stage, as if the data collected had to fit a predetermined outcome.”
“To issue a report that grades the best performing secondary state-funded school in Sunderland (latest published GCSE results) as the worst defies all common sense and logic,” he continued, “We take any criticism seriously and aspire to the highest standards for our pupils. We continually strive to be better, but this report, prompted by the new ‘British values’ rules, lacks any sense of proportion.”
Those “British values” are an all-encompassing social agenda that demands schools teach Islam, lesbianism and other alternative-lifestyle values, regardless of their core principles.
John Bingham reported in the London Telegraph about the same time that the inspectors who visited Grindon Hall engaged in questionable behavior.
“They are said to have pressed primary aged girls at Grindon Hall Christian School, in Sunderland, on whether they knew what lesbians ‘did’ and if any of their friends felt trapped in the ‘wrong body.’ They also allegedly questioned children as young as six about their knowledge of Hindu festivals and the Jewish Torah as part of a special inspection.”
The new government rules had been prompted by the nation’s “Trojan Horse” scandal, in which hard-line Muslim groups infiltrated and essentially took over schools in Birmingham, imposing Islam on the public school classes. The rules introduced by Nicky Morgan, the nation’s education secretary, were intended to promote “British values,” including tolerance and democracy.
WND reported when Trinity Christian School in Reading was threatened with closure, even though it previously had been rated “good” and “excellent,” because it didn’t “promote” other religions.
That was because the U.K.’s official education inspector told the independent Christian school that it was out of step with “British values” prescribed by the government and must invite someone from another faith, such as a Muslim imam, to lead assemblies or risk being closed.
from PropagandaGuard https://propagandaguard.wordpress.com/2016/01/14/lawmakers-warn-govt-could-dictate-sunday-school-lessons/
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