Affinity Policy Statement EDUCATION
A. The Family
Education is primarily the responsibility of parents. The main location for learning, especially in childhood, is in the family as social and moral values are imbibed by a child in a family context. The core contribution the family makes to education is not so much in the ‘academic’ sphere as in ‘wisdom’ which in the Bible includes:
• Moral discernment and the ability to take responsibility;
• The readiness and ability to learn and to go on learning;
• Reverence for God as its source.
Policy implications
1. New government legislation should be appraised for the impact it will have on the family
2. Schools should publish a ‘values statement’ which reflects the range of views of parents as well as those of staff and governors
3. We support the notion of mutual commitment between home and school recognising that teachers have a delegated responsibility for children
4. We share the concern that standards of literacy and numeracy are still well below that which children need to equip them for adult life.
B. Secularisation
There is no such thing as ‘value-free education’, by which a spurious objectivity is assumed to be possible. For Christians their beliefs are fundamental to the education process. Government has a responsibility for seeing that educational provision is made for the well being of children. It also has the responsibility to determine a framework of values common to all children entrusted to the professional educators but these values should not inhibit the development of distinctiveness and in particular, the responsibilities of Christians to shape and practice the education of their own children from their faith perspective.
Policy Implications
1. Education should provide opportunities to: learn about Jesus Christ and understand his claims on people’s lives; to discern truth from falsehood, to do good rather than evil; to live as responsible citizens; to study all aspects of created reality and to learn how to manage and care for it; to appreciate and enjoy beauty and wonder of what God has made as well as human achievements; to develop practical , communicative, creative and decision-making skills and to understand, appreciate and evaluate our history and heritage.
2. These should be taught in the light of the Christian world view which has forged our cultural history and by comparison with other world views.
C. Worship
Christian do not share common agreement on the ‘rightness’ of requiring a daily act of worship in maintained schools. It raises questions about the nature of the God that can appropriately be worshipped in such an act and about how the integrity of both pupils and teachers can be respected. There are also practical issues linked to provision of accommodation/time, content appropriate to age/aptitude of pupils and quality of leadership.
Policy Implications
1. We need to safeguard the right for schools to have Christian worship if desired and for parents to withdraw if any collective worship is not ‘broadly Christian’.
2. We need to protect the liberty to share the Christian faith on a voluntary basis.
3. We need to ensure that the specific status of Jesus Christ and the Christian world view can be presented in any new provision for spiritual and moral education.
4. We need to weigh the likely impact on those teachers/parents/members of the public who may see the ending of the present legislation as undermining the
Christian witness in their school.
