The debate over the future of private schools in the wake of Labour’s plan to impose VAT on fees intensified last week when one of our readers complained that faith schools were being unfairly impacted.
Today a correspondent responds by arguing that religion should not be part of any school’s ethos.
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James Martin of Bearsden writes:
"Norman A Ogston (Letters, August 15) criticises the Labour Government for plans to add VAT to all privately-run schools, a result of which seems to be causing the closure of a faith school in Greenock called Cedars.
I'm not so sure that in the round this new tax on private schooling is a particularly good idea and no I was not privately educated, though if one consequence is that it takes down religious schools then it may have some merit.
Religion of any kind should not be taught in any school as part of its ethos but only in a generic sense as part of the curriculum just like Maths or English or Greek mythology. If parents wish to subject their children to Christianity, Islam or any other religious dogma, they should do so at home.
Of course here in Scotland we have the added problem of schools teaching their pupils imbued with the Roman Catholic version of Christianity, which only emphasises the absurdity of religion in the school environment."
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