Faith Schools: Democracy, Human Rights and Social Cohesion
Open Access
- 1 January 2012
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Policy Futures in Education
- Vol. 10 (5), 500-506
- https://doi.org/10.2304/pfie.2012.10.5.500
Abstract
This article argues that faith-based schools are a necessary feature of democratic and pluralistic societies and a legitimate expression of human rights as constituted in the European Convention in Human Rights (2000). It further argues that if the rights of parents to have a real choice for faith-based schools (regardless of ability to pay) are to be actualised, then state funding for such schools is required. The article concludes by saying that current arguments that faith-based schools are generative of social or community conflict have no basis in existing empirical research. These arguments, when examined, are not evidence based but rather based upon polemical and prejudiced assertions which give a superficial reading of the causes of community conflict, as in the case of Northern Ireland.Keywords
This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit:
- Catholic SchoolsPublished by Informa UK Limited ,2002
- Catholic Schools and the Common GoodPublished by Harvard University Press ,1993