Evangelical Christian Schools Failing to Reach Tolerance Targets

New reports out this month have indicated that evangelical Christian schools are not being as successful as other religious faith schools in promoting tolerance and respect for other cultures and faiths.

The data was collected by educational watchdogs between September 2003 and June 2004, and the results are worrying for Christian evangelical schools.

According to the data 36% of Muslim schools that currently do not posses full independent status failed to meet the requirements on tolerance, but marginally higher were evangelical Christian schools with 42.5% failing to meet the standards.

The results more literally showed that out of 50 Muslim schools surveyed that 18 of these failed to meet the requirement, and 17 out of 40 Christian evangelical schools also were sub-standard.

The current results showed that up until January 2005, the requirement has even gotten worse – with now 18 out of 40 Christian evangelical schools falling below par.

Before full independent status can be awarded to a school, they must first comply with Regulation 2e of the Education (Independent School Standards) (England) Regulations 2003, which states that schools must, "assist pupils to acquire an appreciation of and respect for their own and other cultures, in a way that promotes tolerance and harmony."

The chief inspector of schools, Mr Bell was quoted last week as saying that faith schools should have a monitoring system to ensure that students would receive an "understanding of not only their own faith but of other faiths and the wider tenets of British society."

Even though last week, Mr Bell urged Muslim schools in particular to comply with this, an Ofsted spokesperson reported that Muslim schools were highlighted as they make up the largest proportion of faith schools in the UK.

Currently there are more than 14,000 pupils in Muslim schools, 9,500 in Jewish and just 5,000 in evangelical Christian schools in the UK.

"This was not simply directed at Muslim schools. However, it is clear that this is a particular issue in relation to Muslim schools along with an understanding of British institutions. It was for this reason that HMCI chose to highlight the issue in respect of Muslim schools."

The overall number of independent faith schools has shot up over the past eighteen months from 170 in September 2003 to 276 in January 2005.