The Government’s flagship academies and free schools may be forced to promote marriage and devalue families based on other relationships if they wish to obtain and sustain their funding, according to a report in the Telegraph today (December 4th).
A document laying out the conditions for funding these new state schools, which are centrally funded rather than coming under local authority arrangements, contains the statement that academies and free schools will only be funded by the academies trust if: “Children at the academy are protected from inappropriate teaching materials and they learn the nature of marriage and its importance for family life and for bringing up children.”
This intervention, added on the instructions of the Minister for Education Michael Gove, has echoes of Section 28, and ominously comes under ‘Clause 28’ of the new academies funding agreement.
The wording is said to relate to concerns about Channel Four’s guidance to teenagers on sex and relationships, but the use of the term ‘marriage’ currently excludes civil partnerships and same sex relationships. It also makes no mention of one-parent families.
Schools OUT co-chair Tony Fenwick said: “If this phrasing is as reported, the gays and lesbian MPs who famously make up this “LGBT-friendly” coalition Government need to be on alert. Tens of thousands of schoolchildren are now taught in academies and if their education is contingent upon the dictat of a government minister, then that is disturbing. If that government minister wants to reintroduce Section 28 through covert means, that is outrageous.”
Mr Gove has declined invitations to Schools OUT Conferences and LGBT events up until now. He has also been absent from LGBT ceremonies at Downing Street.