The United Kingdom and Human Rights - College of Social ...

176 Values and Civil and Political Liberties
statements. Both categories, those who speak or write,
and those who react violently to such statements, are
abusing human rights values of free speech and free
protest.
Because compulsory assimilation, effected by limited
institutional provision, denies the right to remain of
different religious persuasion, there is need for reexamining
such institutions, particularly schools. In any
such re-examination it must also be remembered that
separate schools can be at the cost of indoctrinating or
even of forcing those within a minority, especially girls,
into conformity with minority traditions which may limit
their personal freedom, deny equal opportunities and
depart from equality between the sexes. Certainly, if
there are to be more publicly-funded religious schools,
their teachers must be academically satisfactory and able
to deliver the National Curriculum, while equal educational
opportunities must be provided for all pupils.
Those results could be achieved by adequate inspecting
machinery in conjunction with the Secretary of State for
Education's powers when considering whether to authorise
voluntary bodies of a particular religious persuasion
to establish a new voluntary-aided school. If initially
satisfied as to academic criteria, provision of equal
opportunities and ability to meet expenses required to be
met by the establishing body, it seems unreasonable that
the Secretary of State may deny permission on the
ground that there is not "an overall need for extra
maintained school places in the area," a criterion
currently permitting him to refuse permission. The
interests of small groups, seeking to keep their distinctiveness,
raise perplexing issues, and Governments need
to handle these hyper-sensitively, with understanding of
different traditions and acting generously, even if the
results are additional calls on state resources and administrative
problems, requiring a degree of alertness