More public holidays proposed by BHA

More public holidays
We propose more religious holidays in schools. Our original suggestion was that this could be done by ‘clawing back’ (say) 20 days from current school holidays and redistributing them as, for example, Easter, Divali, Eid, Passover etc, according to nationally or locally co-ordinated schemes.

It is possible now for LEAs to set their own holidays, and some already recognise non-Christian holidays: Newham LEA has redistributed 4 days as religious holidays for faiths other than Christian, and other London boroughs have taken similar action. The total number of days off would not change and those who worked in schools and the tourist industry need not lose out.

We believe that giving whole schools or whole LEAs days off for religious festivals is far less disruptive for pupils and teachers than merely permitting a minority of pupils and teachers to take days off while normal classes continue.

However, the Local Government Association had commissioned some research into the effects of holidays on learning and, as a result, did not recommend increasing the number of one-day holidays, though it recommended changes in school holidays which would include fixing the time of the spring holiday and giving just one or two days off for the moveable holiday of Easter25.

It is also clear that teachers value the long summer holiday and would resent any change to that. Our modified proposal, which we believe would be a significant symbolic sign of respect to minority groups in schools, is that six new holidays are created, one for each of the major non- Christian faiths and one for humanists and other non-religious people.

(We proposed Darwin Day, 12th February, for non-religious people, and invited suggestions from religious groups for the other five.)

At the very least, we suggest that religious holidays are taken into consideration when considering reforms of the academic year.

We also propose that that these be public holidays, to be partially achieved by replacing some existing bank holidays that have no apparent significance. More, and more pluralist, religious holidays in the workplace would send out a strong positive signal to religious minorities in our community and increase goodwill towards them.

We have fewer (8) public, or bank, holidays than many other countries, and expanding the number of public as well as school religious holidays would enable parents to spend these holidays with their children. It is also essential that school and public examinations acknowledge religious holidays in their time-tables.