Faith‐based grant‐maintained schools: selective international policy borrowing from the Netherlands

Abstract

The 1993 Education Act for England and Wales opened the way for faith-based grant-maintained schools. The first applications for the re-establishment of existing private schools as grant-maintained schools have already been considered by the Funding Agency for Schools for England and decisions from the Secretary of State for Education are expected soon. The various individuals and pressure groups that supported this change in policy frequently drew on international comparisons in their claims for the right to establish state supported faith-based schools. In particular, many advocates looked to the situation in the Netherlands where groups of parents or others are able to receive state funding for new private schools on an equal basis to state-provided schools. This paper examines how state funding is obtained in the Netherlands and shows that advocates of faith-based grant-maintained schools in Britain have drawn very selectively on the Dutch situation. There are many elements of the Dutch situation that are in opposition to much of what advocates would desire. In particular, it is shown that recent developments in the Netherlands indicate that the Dutch position might be seen more as a warning to faith-based schools than an example to be emulated.

Separate schools for religious minorities in England and the Netherlands: using a framework for the comparison and evaluation of policy

“…Following a long campaign (Walford, 1995a(Walford, , 1995b) from a variety of religious and other groups, the 1993 Education Act made it possible for groups of potential independent sponsors to apply to the Secretary of State for Education to start their own state-funded schools which have the aim of fostering, for example, Muslim, Buddhist, or evangelical Christian beliefs or which wish to promote particular educational philosophies. In particular, existing faith-based private schools could apply to become reestablished within the state-maintained sector.…”

Funding for religious schools in England and the Netherlands. Can the piper call the tune?

“…However, the Secretary of State for Education still rejected the proposal, this time on the basis that there were surplus places in the area. By the late 1980s the school was part of a wider campaign to change the law to make it easier to establish new state-maintained schools (Walford, 1995b). This campaign was highly in¯uential in making changes to the 1993 Education Act which made it possible for minority faith schools to enter the maintained sector as a new type of (what was then) grant-maintained school funded by central government.…”

“…The paper draws in part from an earlier paper (Walford, 1995b), and an earlier version has been available as an Occasional Paper from National Centre for the Study of Privatization in Education, USA. The data presented, the statements made, and the views expressed are solely the responsibility of the author.…”

The Christian Schools Campaign

“…Beginning with the founding of the Cedars School, Rochester, in 1969, a network of small, independent Christian schools has come into being, founded by Churches or by groups of concerned parents. The schools aim to provide a strong Christian foundation to the education that they provide and a tangible Christian ethos to the educational environment (Deakin, 1989;Walford, 1995a;Baker and Freeman, 2005;Francis, 2005;ap Siôn et al, 2007).…”