By Diana Mendes
Like millions in this country, Cheikh Ahmed practises his religion.
He is Muslim and though his three sons attend a French public school in Ottawa, he sends two of them for religious study on Sundays because it is free. He cannot afford to send them to a Muslim private school.
Ahmed is also a recent immigrant. He came to Canada from Senegal 10 months ago.
He is the ideal candidate for John Tory’s proposed funding of faith-based education: a newly arrived religious immigrant who cannot afford to send his children to a religious private school.
Yet when asked if he would send his boys, aged nine, seven and four to such a school, he says no.
“I will not send them [to a faith- based school] because I can teach them religion,” he says. “Because we’re here in Canada, we’re not going to be speaking Arabic. We’re going to speak English or French.”
The decision may be easy for Ahmed, but it is not an easy decision for many Ontarians. Tempers flared across the province when Conservative leader John Tory announced he would fund religious schools as part of his platform for the Oct. 10 provincial election. Premier Dalton McGuinty says the plan promotes segregation.
For Moussa Ouarou, principal of the Abraar School, an Islamic private school in Ottawa, the issue is not about culture but equality.
“It is a legitimate right,” he says. “The government funds Catholic education. But if I decide to take my child to another school, I should be entitled to funding for it.”
The Canadian Constitution guarantees that Ontario fund a Catholic and separate school board, as well as a French and English school board, making Ontario the only province with four publicly-funded boards of education.
This arrangement dates back to Confederation when French Catholics and English Protestants battled for the right to educate their children in their chosen language and faith. Now, 140 years later, with the policy of multiculturalism and thousands of new immigrants coming to Canada every year, some worry that schools based on religion will cause more harm to society than good.
Tory says publicly funded religious schools are not only fair and equal but will bring private schools, like the Abraar School, under the jurisdiction of the public system.
That will likely mean forcing teachers to be certified, making private schools follow the Ontario curriculum and participate in standardized tests.
Ouarou says his school qualifies on most counts. He says he is willing to follow whatever guidelines the Ministry of Education sets out because schools like his help children feel more accepted at school.
“In some cases, children will gain more self-confidence in their own environment,” he says
But many educational experts say faith-based schools will affect social education.
“My concern is how Muslims and Christians, for example, will learn about each other if we balkanize ourselves for 12 years,” says Barrie Bennett, an educational expert at the University of Toronto. “Canada has a federal policy of multiculturalism. Why wouldn’t we play that into the education system?”
Ouarou is not convinced that publicly funding religious schools will harm Canadian multiculturalism or even immigrant integration. He says he would not turn away a student because of their religion.
Joel Westheimer, an education expert at the University of Ottawa, says he worries that faith-based schools will stifle the debate that is necessary for democracy.
“When you have religious education, in my mind, there’s too high a risk that the debates aren’t going to be taught,” he says. “Kids in a democratic society need to learn and be exposed to different perspectives and backgrounds. ”
Peter Beyer, a professor of religion at the University of Ottawa, says it’s very difficult to foresee the cultural outcome of publicly funding faith-based schools because so many other factors need to be considered, such as funding costs, teacher accreditation and provincial oversight, none of which has been addressed by any political party.
He says a small minority of people would transfer their children to such schools.
He acknowledges that there is a public fear that “religious people are starry-eyed extremists,” but they are not.
“The vast majority of the population that want this, want to be integrated. They want to have good jobs, nice houses, want to be able to travel,” he says. They just want to be Muslim or Jewish too.”