THE National Governors' Association (NGA), which represents
300,000 school governors in England, is seeking to abolish the
70-year-old legislation that requires all schools, whether or not
they have a religious character, to hold a daily act of collective
worship. Acts of worship that were not in line with pupils' faith
are meaningless, an NGA statement said.
It went on: "The view was taken that schools are not places of
worship, but places of education, and expecting the worship of a
religion or religions in schools without a religious character
should not be a compulsory part of education in England today."
Moreover, the statement said, many schools lacked the space
necessary to provide collective worship, and teachers who were able
or willing to lead it.
The new policy, which sharpens the NGA's former position, that
collective worship should not be mandatory, was drawn up at a
meeting of the organisation's 15-member policy committee last
month.
When the provision of collective worship - which has been an
accepted feature in most schools since compulsory education was
established in the 19th century - was made mandatory in the 1944
Education Act, with the assumption that it would be
non-denominationally Christian, provision was made for
non-Christians and dissenting parents to withdraw their
children.
This provision was included in the 1982 Education Reform Act,
which said that worship should be "wholly or mainly Christian". But
schools that had large numbers of children from other faiths could
apply for a "determination", excusing them from this
requirement.
Although the collective-worship requirement has frequently been
challenged, it is still observed in some form in most primary
schools. In many secondary schools, the rule is often honoured in
the breach; and, in most schools where worship takes place, the
style is far removed from the standard hymn-and-prayer format of
the 1940s and '50s.
The NGA's statement emphasises that its changed stance on
worship does not affect its position on religious education. "It is
important that students continue to be taught a broad and balanced
curriculum that encourages a knowledge and under-standing of all
faiths," it says.
The Church of England's chief education officer, the Revd Jan
Ainsworth, has suggested that collective worship offers something
unique: "Worship may be the only place in our over-regulated
schools where the tyranny of SATS and constant assessment can be
forgotten for a few minutes, and real engagement take place.
"Assemblies can meet all the community-building functions
beloved of any organisation. Take away the religious framing, and
you impoverish the experience, reducing the content to a sort of EU
morality, or an Aesop's Fables approach to spiritual
development."