Crackle fire

Found lurking in the drafts folder. Hope you like it.

Does denominational school provision in Scotland match religious affiliation?

The usual rules of such questions apply; the answer is, of course, no.

I’d better begin, by stating yet again that my beef is not against any particular church, or Christianity, or religion per se; this post drills a bit deeper into the information I’ve dug out since being asked to speak at a school debate on the motion “This house would abolish state-funded faith schools”.

It is a common trope of the proponents of state-funded faith schools that they meet the needs and desires of faithful parents to provide a confessional education for their children, but not out of their own pockets, rather the state’s.

In preparing for the debate at George Heriot’s School yesterday, I took a look at the Scottish Government’s own statistics on schools as at September 2016 [link, xls]. I’ve abstracted from that data the following data on the number of school places by denominational or non-denominational status for each local authority area in Scotland.

Local Authority	Non-denominational	Episcopalian	Jewish	Roman Catholic	Total
Aberdeen City	23,302			788	24,090
Aberdeenshire	38,100				38,100
Angus	15,932			163	16,095
Argyll & Bute	10,645			508	11,153
Clackmannanshire	6,854			256	7,110
Dumfries & Galloway	18,855			1,147	20,002
Dundee City	14,598			4,733	19,332
East Ayrshire	15,478			1,617	17,095
East Dunbartonshire	14,024			3,609	17,633
East Lothian	14,282			708	14,990
East Renfrewshire	12,273		170	5,563	18,006
Edinburgh City	44,819			6,827	51,646
Eilean Siar	3,673				3,673
Falkirk	19,947			3,322	23,269
Fife	47,761			4,817	52,578
Glasgow City	42,394			29,353	71,747
Highland	32,781	52		278	33,112
Inverclyde	5,940			4,701	10,641
Midlothian	11,645			1,573	13,218
Moray	12,339			415	12,754
North Ayrshire	16,323			3,294	19,617
North Lanarkshire	30,772			21,456	52,228
Orkney Islands	2,949				2,949
Perth & Kinross	17,693	54		1,591	19,338
Renfrewshire	18,278			6,634	24,912
Scottish Borders	15,293			204	15,497
Shetland Islands	3,538				3,538
South Ayrshire	13,621			1,403	15,024
South Lanarkshire	35,243			11,783	47,026
Stirling	11,683	74		1,581	13,338
West Dunbartonshire	7,640			5,713	13,353
West Lothian	22,667			6,060	28,727
Total	601,344	180	170	130,098	731,791

Comparing the 2011 Scottish census data for Roman Catholic affiliation, again by local authority area, with the Roman Catholic share of school places, gives the following table:

Local authority	Roman Catholic population (2011 census)	RC denominational school places (2016)	Over/ underprovision %	Total school roll	Over/ underprovision (places)
Aberdeen City	8.90%	3.27%	-5.63%	24,090	-1356
Aberdeenshire	4.80%	0.00%	-4.80%	38,100	-1829
Angus	6.70%	1.01%	-5.69%	16,095	-916
Argyll and Bute	11.30%	4.56%	-6.74%	11,153	-752
Clackmannanshire	9.40%	3.60%	-5.80%	7,110	-412
Dumfries & Galloway	6.50%	5.73%	-0.77%	20,002	-154
Dundee City	18.30%	24.48%	6.18%	19,332	1195
East Ayrshire	10%	9.46%	-0.54%	17,095	-92
East Dunbartonshire	22.30%	20.47%	-1.83%	17,633	-323
East Lothian	9.70%	4.72%	-4.98%	14,990	-746
East Renfrewshire	22.20%	30.90%	8.70%	18,006	1567
Edinburgh City	12.10%	13.22%	1.12%	51,646	578
Eilean Siar	12.30%	0.00%	-12.30%	3,673	-452
Falkirk	12.30%	14.28%	1.98%	23,269	461
Fife	8.50%	9.16%	0.66%	52,578	347
Glasgow City	27.30%	40.91%	13.61%	71,747	9765
Highland	7.60%	0.84%	-6.76%	33,112	-2238
Inverclyde	37%	44.18%	7.18%	10,641	764
Midlothian	9.80%	11.90%	2.10%	13,218	278
Moray	6.60%	3.25%	-3.35%	12,754	-427
North Ayrshire	14.70%	16.79%	2.09%	19,617	410
North Lanarkshire	34.60%	41.08%	6.48%	52,228	3384
Orkney Islands	2.80%	0.00%	-2.80%	2,949	-83
Perth & Kinross	8.90%	8.23%	-0.67%	19,338	-130
Renfrewshire	22.70%	26.63%	3.93%	24,912	979
Scottish Borders	6.30%	1.31%	-4.99%	15,497	-773
Shetland Islands	4.10%	0.00%	-4.10%	3,538	-145
South Ayrshire	9.90%	9.34%	-0.56%	15,024	-84
South Lanarkshire	22.20%	25.06%	2.86%	47,026	1345
Stirling	12.30%	11.86%	-0.44%	13,338	-59
West Dunbartonshire	33.10%	42.78%	9.68%	13,353	1293
West Lothian	16.10%	21.10%	5.00%	28,727	1436

I want to add a note of caution about religious affiliation as recorded by the census. Census returns are completed by the “head of the household” and are likely to attribute to children the religious beliefs of the parents, potentially over-representing religious belief across the whole population. This is why census data is popular with religious apologists, because it provides the highest numbers when compared with other surveys of religious belief when individuals are canvassed.

Charted, sorted by the proportion of Roman Catholic denominational school places by local authority, this data shows:

There are a number of interesting observations that fall out from this analysis.

1. The distribution and density of Roman Catholic denominational schools represents the historic settlement of Irish Catholics migrating to Scotland over the last couple of centuries. In fact, I count my ancestors in this number.
2. Assuming that the proportion of denominational provision hasn’t really changed in those local authorities since Roman Catholic schools started to receive state funding 100 years ago, there appears to have been no attempt on the part of the Church nor the local education committees to ensure that denominational provision met local demographics.
3. Again assuming that the proportion of denominational provision matched the proportion of the population of the same confession, it would seem clear that the number of confessing Roman Catholics has declined significantly in the last 100 years. If I can track down some historic census data, I’ll add that in.
4. This results in over-provision of denominational places in the West of Scotland (with the exception of the expanding and affluent East Dunbartonshire) and an under-provision in many other parts of Scotland, particularly the north-east.
5. There are no Roman Catholic denominational schools on any off-shore island in Scotland with the exception of the Isle of Bute, which lies just off Argyll in the Firth of Clyde and bumps into the mainland in a heavy swell.

If the Roman Catholic church were genuine about providing choice to its congregants, would we not expect them to be seeking to establish new denominational schools, particularly in places like Aberdeen and the Isle of Barra? Why are the islands altogether not worthy of the same parental choice as the West of Scotland?

Why are local education committees content to continue with significant over-provision of denominational schools in places such as Glasgow, West Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire and Inverclyde?

Ultimately, many of the arguments that proponents make for the continuation of denominational or faith schools in receipt of state funding come down to retaining embedded privilege. A good school will be a good school without giving one religion priority. Surely good Catholic teachers will still be good Catholics – and good teachers – in non-denominational schools? And perhaps less time will be wasted, as it was with my own schooling, in telling children to make space on their chairs for their guardian angels.

This house would abolish state-funded faith schools

George Heriot’s School in Edinburgh have a school debating society which, from time to time, invites guest speakers to debate a motion. The Scottish Secular Society were asked to put up a speaker to propose the motion, “This house would abolish state-funded faith schools“, and I offered to act as proposer. The speaker for the opposition was Barbara Coupar, from the Scottish Catholic Education Service.

The opposition to the motion was based on arguments of the democratic will of the people; parental choice; faith schools providing diversity; a fear of doctrinaire and monolithic secularism; the gifting to the state of the church’s school assets for the public good etc..

I met some wonderful, articulate, thoughtful and passionate young people who gave the speakers a testing examination before decisively supporting the proposition. To be honest, it was such fun having the conversation with tomorrow’s citizens that I wouldn’t have minded had the vote gone the other way; but I’m so glad it didn’t.

The full text of my opening speech and closing remarks are set out below the fold. I’ve also included links to some source materials. In another post I’ll provide some more data on the scale of provision of denominational school places in Scotland.