Paul Braterman outlines progress of the Scottish Secular Society’s Petition relating the teaching of creationism as a valid scientific alternative to the established science of evolution, common descent, and deep time. This morning, the Public Petitions Committee of the Scottish Parliament held its third and final hearing on the Scottish Secular Society’s Petition PE01530. The meeting is
In Scottish Parliament Motion S4M-12149, John Mason MSP makes a somewhat surprising assertion: Motion S4M-12149: John Mason, Glasgow Shettleston, Scottish National Party, Date Lodged: 23/01/2015 Creationism and Evolution That the Parliament notes that South Lanarkshire Council has issued guidance concerning the appointment and input of chaplains and religious organisations in schools; understands that some people
The British Humanist Assosiation has noted that Government changes Academy model funding agreement… but DOESN’T ban creationist schools The Government yesterday revised the Academy model funding agreement to bring it in line with all the recent changes made to the Free School model funding agreement – except it declined to ban creationist schools. The British Humanist
The British Humanist Association has some news on the latest tranche of Free Schools. The headline news is that the Everyday Champions Church bid for a free school appears to have been rejected. You may recall that the ECC is an avowedly creationist crew, which would not sit well with Michael Gove’s public statements that
The BCSE announces on their blog (Close that loophole Mr. Gove) that a letter from CrISIS has today been delivered to Michael Gove at the Department for Education formally asking him to close the loophole that allows creationists into state funded schools to present Creationism to our children as a valid scientific fact. If you
The British Centre for Science Education has posted an excellent blog article (British Centre for Science Education: Creationism in the Deep South (of England)) reviewing the background to a disturbing incident at St Peter’s Church of England Aided School in Exeter. A whole year group of year 11 children are brought together and have a
The British Humanist Association notes the alarming speed at which secondary schools in England are transferring to Academy status (Expansion of Academies Programme Continues Apace Despite Lack of Safeguards). The Department of Education has announced that 1 in 6 secondary schools in England have now converted to Academy status (547), a large jump from January this
The British Humanist Association has been campaigning for UK citizens to accurately respond to the census question on religion. Why should I answer the question at all? Well, this is a personal thing and I wouldn’t pressurise people into any specific answer or none. But census data get used for all sorts of policy decisions,
The return of the Conservative Party to government in the UK, albeit in coalition form, has brought with it the possibility (some would say threat) of considerable social change. Germane to the subject of this blog is the impact the coalition plans to wreak on education. Those of us in higher education are acutely aware
Insipid responses on Intelligent Design creationism from the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning and Learning and Teaching Scotland The excellent 21st Floor launched a campaign (Fake ID) against the potential intrusion of creationism and its intelligent design variant into Scottish Schools, following the establishment of the Centre for Intelligent Design (C4ID) in Glasgow.