The Bible teaches that parents have an important role in teaching their children about God.

“When you enter the land that the LORD will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. 26 And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ 27 then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’ “—Exodus 12:25-27

“These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”—Deuteronomy 6:6-7

“Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, 6 to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 7 tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”—Joshua 4:5-7

“Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.”—Ephesians 6:4

“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”—2 Timothy 3:14-15

The most important thing that children can learn about is God.

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding.”—Psalm 111:10

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge...”—Proverbs 1:7

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”—Proverbs 9:10

I don’t the Bible explicitly teaches that subjects such as maths or French are best taught to children by believers. However, if the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and understanding, maybe it is preferable to teach these things in a framework that puts God at the centre of learning.

It looks increasingly likely that the Conservatives will form the next government. The Conservatives say they want to make it easier for churches to start schools.

“...We will tear down the bureaucratic barriers which prevent new schools being built, and remove the administrative obstacles which currently prevent charities, churches, voluntary groups and others from providing the new schools parents want and children need....”
http://www.conservatives.com/tile.do?def=news.story.page&obj_id=139136

“...We’ve got to bust open the state monopoly of public education in Britain. Give charities and churches and private companies the right and the resources to set up new schools....”
http://www.conservatives.com/tile.do?def=news.story.page&obj_id=143934

If the government wants churches to create new schools, is now a good time for evangelical Christians to be thinking about creating new schools with a clearly God-centred curriculum, with the Bible at the heart of education?

I’m a little uncomfortable with the idea of excluding ourselves from the communities we find ourselves in and being in a Christian bubble.  It’s like the common American Christian ‘thing’ of homeschooling because you don’t know what influences a child might come into contact with at school.

If we want to create explicitly Christian schools then we also need to be comfortable with there being explicitily Islamic, Jewish, Sikh schools etc. as well.

I think that it’s very important that our children receive Christian education but believe that that’s down to the parents and local Church to provide, rather than the school.  Too many people try to shift responsibility to schools now and I don’t believe that’s a healthy attitude to take.

I don’t want to form a Christian bubble. However, I think that particularly for primary schools, Christian teachers are a better way of influencing the school than 5 -11 year old children who may or may not by that age have a good understanding of the gospel.

Also, if churches or Christian charities did create schools, and these were academically successful, non-Christian parents may want to send their children to them, even if they don’t like the Christian curriculum.

You could argue, however, that we should encourage good Christian teachers to go into all schools and try to provide appropriate influence, rather than just in the select few specialist schools.

My cousin used to teach in a CofE school and the only thing that really set it apart from a normal school was that they had an assembly every day which was of a broadly Christian nature and they said a prayer every day in class.  The whole curriculum still had to be covered so there was little advantage to sending your kids that ‘Christian’ school than to a non-Christian school.