School Inspector Recommends Dropping Daily Worship Requirement

April 21, 2004

Source: BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/3646389.stm

On April 21, 2004 the BBC News reported, "The chief inspector of England's schools has suggested dropping their legal obligation to provide 'a daily act of collective worship.' David Bell, the head of Ofsted, said 76% of secondary schools were breaking the law in not doing this. Mr. Bell said perhaps the requirement should now be weekly or even monthly, rather than daily. His comments marked the 60th anniversary of the Education Act which introduced the worship requirement. He said that when the 1944 Act was passed, 'spiritual development was probably considered to be synonymous with the daily act of Christian worship. But, with the broadening of Britain's religious and cultural identity, spirituality has come into its own as encapsulating those very qualities that make us human'...Mr. Bell applauded the Commission for Racial Equality chairman, Trevor Phillips, for his comments about the problems associated with multiculturalism and the need to foster a sense of Britishness. 'Would we weaken that strengthening of "Britishness" if we no longer required children and young people to worship daily in the Christian tradition which is so bound up with our history and heritage?' he said. It would encourage those who participated to do so 'in a more meaningful way.'"