Re: A Previous request made in January 2017

The request was partially successful.

Dear Department for Education,

I am writing again to your department, following on from a request I made in January 2017, regarding the Fabian Society. I have been told that NO records, are kept on whether there is Fabián Society activities going on, within UK schools. I was told the department does not collect or hold, that information. I must add at this point, through another Fabian Society request made to the Police, I have 'proven' a Fabian presence, in their organisation. They admitted as much, to me. I have some very specific questions, regarding this matter.

It was revealed to me by Tamba Musa, that the state, must prevent political indoctrination in state funded schools. But how can this be right, if no such investigation has been launched into whether a Fabian Society presence is IN the schools, or not?? If they DO, have a presence or NOT in UK schools, cannot be ascertained, because no records are collected? It seems to me, that NO such investigation, has ever been done. Can you tell me if this is true, or not? (Question)

Secondly, I would like to ask if the state, are obliged to prevent RELIGIOUS indoctrination in schools? What is the policy, regarding religious indoctrination in schools? (Question) Is it the same, as the political indoctrination policies in section 406/7 of the Education Act? (Question) Does the state have to prevent RELIGIOUS indoctrination, in line with the Education Act 1996? (Question) I will obviously, contact the devolved admins, for their answer. You see I have become aware that many CHRISTIAN pupils, are regularly being taken on visits to mosques, when NO such visits, are being run for MUSLIM pupils, to visit CHRISTIAN churches. I would like to ask how this, is being fairly implemented.

It seems a bit worrying to me, that there has never been any kind of investigation into Fabian presence, in UK schools. The Fabian Society, as I'm sure you're aware, are a proven subversive Marxist organisation. With a track record, of infiltrating institutions and push a leftist/Marxist agenda. The implied answer that NO investigation has been taken, is very concerning to hear. I await your replies.

Yours faithfully,

Joseph Chalmers

MINISTERS, Department for Education

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Dear  Chalmers 

You are correct in saying that the department does not hold records on
whether there is any Fabian Society activity or a presence within
individual schools. Neither have we conducted any investigation into this.

In your latest correspondence, you seem to have misinterpreted part of
what I said in my reply of 23 January.  Rather than refer to the ‘state’,
what I actually said was that state funded schools are obliged to prevent
political indoctrination in schools and to secure the balanced treatment
of political issues (for ease of reference, I have copied sections 406 and
407 of the Education Act 1996 into the annex to this letter).

This doesn’t mean that the state has a duty to investigate in each school
whether there is a Fabian or any other political influence. It means that
the government has placed a duty on local authorities, governing bodies
and head teachers as set out in the annex.

For example, section 407 is concerned with how pupils are taught. It
places a duty on schools to ensure that where political issues are brought
to the attention of pupils – including when they are taking part in
extra-curricular activities - they are offered a balanced presentation of
opposing views so they are not presented with partisan views, which means
only one side of a political issue. This does not prevent schools from
presenting political views eg. as part of Citizenship classes when talking
about the various political parties, or if relevant to a topic in a
History class. But there should not be active one-sided promotion of
political views.

 

There is not a similar duty within the Education Act 1996 in relation to
religion. The government requires all state funded schools to teach
religious education (RE). This should ‘reflect the fact that the religious
traditions in Great Britain are in the main Christian whilst taking
account of the teaching and practices of the other principal religions
represented in Great Britain’ (see section 375 of the Education Act 1996).

It is important to understand that RE is not, as you imply, about
indoctrination. Well-taught RE should develop an understanding and
knowledge of different religious beliefs and teachings, including
Christianity (which religion must be a feature of all locally agreed
syllabuses for religious education). Additionally, all schools are
expected to promote respect and tolerance of those of different faiths and
beliefs; and this is inspected by Ofsted.

 

In relation to children visiting mosques or churches, schools do not
select children to visit places of worship on the basis of their faith
(eg. send only Christians to a mosque, or only Muslims to a church). As
with other subjects, we leave it up to the professionals to decide how to
deliver their school’s curriculum. A teacher may arrange for a whole
class, regardless of their individual faiths or beliefs, to attend a
mosque, synagogue, church, or temple if this is relevant to the religion
they are currently teaching about. If the topic is Christianity, then all
children, regardless of their own faith, might attend a church. It isn’t a
requirement for teachers to organize visits as part of religious education
lessons, but this or inviting appropriate speakers to come into school is
common practice and enables children to ask questions, compare with their
own faith (if they have one) and to challenge perceptions.

  

[Extracts from [1]Education Act 1996]

 

Section 406 Political indoctrination.E+W

(1)The local authority, governing body and head teacher shall forbid—

(a)the pursuit of partisan political activities by any of those registered
pupils at a maintained school who are junior pupils, and

(b)the promotion of partisan political views in the teaching of any
subject in the school.

(2)In the case of activities which take place otherwise than on the school
premises, subsection (1)(a) applies only where arrangements for junior
pupils to take part in the activities are made by—

(a)any member of the school’s staff (in his capacity as such), or

(b)anyone acting on behalf of the school or of a member of the school’s
staff (in his capacity as such).

(3)In this section “maintained school” includes community or foundation
special school established in a hospital.

 

Section 407 Duty to secure balanced treatment of political issues.E+W

(1)The local authority, governing body and head teacher shall take such
steps as are reasonably practicable to secure that where political issues
are brought to the attention of pupils while they are—

(a)in attendance at a maintained school, or

(b)taking part in extra-curricular activities which are provided or
organised for registered pupils at the school by or on behalf of the
school,

they are offered a balanced presentation of opposing views.

(2)In this section “maintained school” includes community or foundation
special school established in a hospital.

 

Your correspondence has been allocated reference number 2018-0034359. If
you need to respond to us, please visit:
[2]https://www.education.gov.uk/contactus and quote your reference number.

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Yours sincerely

Tamba Musa 

Ministerial and Public Communications Division

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