HEADTEACHERS have called for a change to "outdated" laws forcing them to hold daily prayers for pupils.
A Daily Post poll found secondary schools across the city are already failing their legal duty to hold a collective act of Christian worship each day for every pupil.
Many children are only attending assemblies once a week, and non-religious texts are being read in place of daily classroom "prayers" - which the Government says can replace a religious assembly.
Teachers in Liverpool's state-run community schools say the law, last updated in 1944, is out of touch with an increasingly multi-faith society.
It follows national calls for a cut in the amount of compulsory prayer in secular schools, after an investigation found more than half the schools in Wales were flouting the law.
Last night Brian Davies, headteacher at Calderstones school, and Liverpool branch secretary for the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), called for a rethink.
He said: "You can't make people worship a god, you can't hold an assembly and make people pray, they will either do it or they won't, you can't force them."
Liverpool city council has urged schools to remember their duty to uphold the law.
But Cllr Paul Clein, executive member for education, said he would like to see compulsory worship dropped for non-religious community schools.
He said: "My view is that holding prayers is fine for a religious school, and as long as it is done by choice then I have absolutely no problem with it.
"But I would be in favour of a change in the law for secular schools. I don't think it's the role of schools to inculcate religion on children.
News RSS Feed