P-04-634 End Exclusion in Schools for Children with No Religion
P-04-634 End Exclusion in Schools for Children with No Religion
Petition wording:
This
petition seeks the support of the Minister for Education and Skills to provide
a non-discriminatory education for children of no organised religion in Wales.
This
petition has been prompted after personal experience sending my own child to an
excellent community primary school in Pontypridd. This school has fantastically
supportive teachers and high quality teaching. However, like all community
primaries in Wales, it is legally obliged to provide sessions of collective
worship and occasionally exceeds its legal obligations under the law by
bringing worship into the classroom, the lunch hall and school trips (to places
like the Creationist Zoo, Noah's Ark Farm (see existing petition under
consideration here: http://www.senedd.assembly.wales/mgIssueHistoryHome.aspx?IId=10925
).
In
our instance parents have never been consulted on whether we wish our child
taught a religion as truth, which we do not. Once I heard of the trip to Noah's
Ark Zoo in particular, I called the headmaster who told me that I had the
option to exclude my child from organised school activities, which I do not
wish to as it would damage and reduce my daughter's role in the school
community and generally discriminate against her on the basis of religion.
Afterwards,
I searched for a nearby school to which I could send my daughter as an
alternative and found that not only was there no option locally but, in fact,
none in the whole of Wales. I was genuinely shocked to find that this legal
imposition meant that there was no school in the country where my daughter
could partake as an equal in school activities. In speaking to a number of
other parents in the school, I found sufficient support among the religious and
non-religious to put forward this petition.
The
petitioner does not seek a petition to end religious practice in schools but to
ask the Education Minister to ensure a viable, non-discriminatory education is
accessible for children of no organised religion.
.
Petition raised by: Richard Martin
Date petition first
considered by Committee:
TBC
Number of signatures: 37 Online signatures
Business type: Petition
Reason considered: Senedd Business;
Status: For consideration
First published: 05/05/2015