Towards Democratizing Education
Brian Stavert and Farzana Hassan
John Tory's recent declarations on extending funding to all faith based schools
has understandably sparked a firestorm of debate among education reform
advocates in Ontario. The proponents of the status quo maintain they have
constitutional guarantees to protect their rights. The agents of change on the
other hand believe its high time such constitutional provisions were amended.
Though much has been said on both sides of the debate, the following issues
still need a careful and dispassionate glance if the public is to fully
understand the implications of John Tory's decisions.
While supporters of funding to faith based schools make three claims about our
current education system, it is now imperative to subject these claims to
scrutiny. They base their arguments on the following: That there is religious
discrimination in public schools, that religious freedom is therefore denied
within the public school system and that faith-based schools provide a superior
moral education.
Suffice it to say that the only religious discrimination existing in the Ontario
educational system is the Provincial funding of Catholic schools. The support of
one faith based school system (Catholic) to the exclusion of all others is
discrimination against other religions. Secondly, Catholic School Boards have
discriminated and continue to discriminate against students and teachers allowed
into their system on the basis of religion, which is a clear violation of civil
rights and liberties. In both cases the most prudent and morally responsible
solution would be the dissolution of the Separate (Catholic) School Boards and
the merger of separate schools into one (French & English) religiously- neutral,
publicly supported school system, open and fair to all.
Proponents of faith based schools claim that our current system prevents them
from the due exercise of their faiths, which they assert is a violation of their
rights and freedoms under our constitution. This is only true to the extent that
the Province
continues to provide full funding support for the Catholic Separate school
system as there is no religious discrimination in the Public School System. It
is a false assertion to claim that the Public School system is contrary to
religious freedom since no one's rights to hold their beliefs or follow their
faiths are prevented by having a religiously neutral environment to learn in,
that is fair and open to all regardless of faith. Once again, the only sensible
solution is to have one religiously- neutral, publicly supported school system
in both official languages.
An oft repeated argument for extending support to faith based schools is their
purported "superior moral" values. The only real way to validate that claim
would be with bias-free data based on the moral or ethical performance of
students leaving these schools for the real world. In Canada there are no
reliable data to support such assertions.
Integration rather than segregation based on religion or ethnicity should be the
ultimate goal of civilized societies. Most of us believe that the function of
education
is to prepare our children to be well adjusted, responsible adults in order to
integrate into the world around them. When our children, as adults, enter the
vocational world they will not be able to pick Jewish, Christian, Islamic, Hindu
or other faith based work places - they will have to live and work in a
culturally and faith-diversified world. Keeping official religion out of schools
is the only way to guarantee the equal rights and freedoms for all faiths and in
no way denies someone their free right to exercise their faith. The home and the
community are the best places to practice ones faith where they do not intrude
on the rights and freedoms of others to do likewise.
Farzana Hassan is the president of the Muslim Canadian Congress
and author of Islam, Women and the Challenges of Today.
[Farzana Hassan-Shahid is President of the Muslim Canadian Congress, Freelance writer, public speaker and author of "Prophecy and the Fundamentalist Quest" and host of the radio program Islam: Faith and Culture.]