Cohesion

As well as educating pupils, schools mould future citizens so will be a special concern of the nation state. They will tend also to reflect any social and cultural tensions that afflict that society. Schools provide an opportunity (perhaps the best or even the only opportunity) to address these in a systematic way before harmful attitudes have become too ingrained – but only if the schools reflect the diversity of the community. Single faith schools, however, reflect only a segment of the community, particularly those catering for minority communities already living apart from the populace at large. Research confirms that the earlier children grow up and learn together, the more likely they will be to live peacefully together respecting each other’s differences. That “golden” opportunity is often missed, frequently at the insistence of religious leaders who have a vested interest in grooming the emerging generation. The price is that any prejudice and bigotry brought by the child from home can all too easily be hardened, rather than eliminated. The consequences for cohesion in society are likely to be severe, even if there were no concerns about extremism. Given that there are legitimate and pressing concerns about extremism, not doing everything possible to ensure integrated education is a grave error.