Colm Fitzpatrick
Students raised in religious homes are more likely to succeed, regardless of whether they went to a faith school or a not, a new study has found.
Research by the UCL Institute of Education found that pupils from Catholic and Church of England families did well due to their upbringing, rather than because of the school they attended.
Analysing data on more than 10,000 people born in England and Wales, researchers found that a faith-school education was only associated with better academic results in the short term.
However, at A-level and degree level, there did not appear to be any academic benefits of a faith school education compared to peers who had a religious upbringing and other similar characteristics, but did not go to a faith school.
Findings
Speaking about these findings, Prof. Alice Sullivan, the study’s lead author, said: “Pupils who were raised in religious homes were more likely to succeed academically than those from non-religious backgrounds, whether they went to faith schools or not, and any small academic advantage that could be due to faith schools themselves was short lived.
“The much-vaunted ‘Catholic school effect’ was mostly explained by the fact that Catholic school pupils were usually from Catholic homes.”
Advantage
Prof. Sullivan added that we can speculate the academic advantage of a religious upbringing at home may be due to cultural differences, such as differences in parenting practices and attitudes to education, as well as to religious belief or practice itself.
“For example,” she said, “British Catholics at this time were often of Irish or European origin, bringing different cultural norms to those raised in other faiths, or none.”
With parents making decisions about their children’s education by comparing schools based on their performance, the study shows that considering the religious background and upbringing of the pupils may be more important for academic success.