A report this week said that schools are failing to provide a secular environment for non-Christian pupils. This, argues Herald columnist Carlos Alba, demonstrates the urgent need for a reform of the education system

I heard this week that a newly appointed head teacher at my old high school has radically altered the nature and content of the daily morning assembly, a sacred shibboleth that had remained untouched since long before I left, more than 40 years ago.

In place of prayers and the reading of passages of Christian scripture, the assembled school now starts the day with a period of mindfulness, in which each pupil is given time to silently consider the challenges that lie before them.

My old rector, a Baptist tub-thumper who once summarily expelled a boy in front of the entire school for not treating the ritual with appropriate seriousness and reverence – an event that made the front page of The Herald – will doubtless be spinning in his grave.

Anyone living in the modern world, however, will see it for what it is – a welcome recognition of the diversity of culture and thought that exists in a society vastly different from that of 1872, when religious observance was first made compulsory in state schools.

Yet, a study published this week suggests that my alma mater may be something of an outlier in recognising the rights and sensibilities of non-religious pupils and those from non-Christian faiths.

The report, Preaching is Not Teaching, by the Humanist Society of Scotland (HSS) warns that schools continue to exhibit a “worrying culture of Christian bias” in religious observance.

Despite official guidance promoting inclusivity, schools are failing to provide a secular environment for non-Christian pupils, who are often chastised for........

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