Faith the facts

Gordon Bell writes (Letters, 25 July) that secularists should “have their schools, teaching their values”, and “let the churches return to a system where we run state-funded Christian schools”.

In a society where those of the Christian faith are in the minority, and the fastest-growing group are the non-religious, can he really be serious?

The Scottish education system was grounded in the church, the inaugural High School of Glasgow was founded nearly 1,000 years ago by the Roman Catholic Church. Religious faith groups continue to have an important part to play in the social fabric of Scotland; however, it is utter ­hubris to think that this should extend to becoming the education arm of the state. 

I think history has proven to us that segregated schooling doesn’t work, and I find it appalling that Mr Bell suggests even further segregation.

Perhaps Mr Bell and his friends may find the compassion and wisdom to see that children and young people deserve to be exposed to Christianity, humanism and many other approaches to life together, in an open and philo­sophic way.

Edinburgh Secular Society will continue to oppose the policy of the Free Church, which would see our state schools turned into Christian madrassas.

Gary McLelland

Edinburgh Secular Society

Edinburgh

SCOTTISH education is failing, with half of school-leavers basically illiterate and innumerate while the other half believes a first-class honours degree is an 
essential human right.

Systematic instruction in our state schools has been undermined by the fashionable notion that children should not be taught a body of rules even in mathematics and grammar.

The credo that all shall have prizes is the product of a cultural and moral relativism which maintains that no values can be judged to be any better or worse than any other.

As we saw with Andy Murray, the first step in the career of a successful sportsman is to get out of Scotland and into the harsh world of training and competition in Florida or Catalonia. 

And government meddling in Scottish university entrance and standards should point aspiring young academics in the direction of the relentlessly elitist colleges of the United States.

(Dr) John Cameron

St Andrews, Fife