SIR – Parents and guardians have the primary responsibility for bringing up their children in accordance with their own values and culture. They may entrust the task of formal education to a school of their choice, but the overall responsibility for the upbringing of their children remains theirs.
The Children, Schools and Families Bill undermines this principle and seeks to impose a particular ideology by means of statutory sex and relationships education from the age of 5 (which primary schools do not currently have to teach). We would therefore urge Parliament decisively to oppose it.
A state which seeks to centralise responsibilities which are properly fulfilled by families is acting in an unjust manner and undermines the basis of a free society.
Norman Wells
Director, Family Education Trust
Rt Rev Brian Noble
Catholic Bishop of Shrewsbury
Professor David Paton
Nottingham University Business School
Shahid Akmal
Chairman, Muslim Council of Britain Education Committee
Carol Gillen
Headteacher, Whitgreave Infant School, Wolverhampton
Colin Hart
Director of the Christian Institute
Dr Andy Stone
Headteacher, Holy Family Technology College, Walthamstow
Miss J. M. Venn
Headteacher, Balshaws CE High School, Leyland, Lancashire
Mrs Michelle O’Sullivan
Chairman of Governors, St Alphonsus School, Manchester
Rev George Rogers
Chairman of Governors, William Law CofE Primary School, Werrington
Dr Liam Goligher
Senior Minister, Duke Street Church, Richmond, Surrey
Rev Vaughan Roberts
Rector, St Ebbe’s Church, Oxford
And 629 others
Published in the Sunday Telegraph, 28 March 2010