Christian fundamentalist schools are teaching shocking claims about gender inequality, homosexuality and creationism. Accelerated Christian Education, or ACE, is a Bible-based program that came from the United States.
ACE schools are now most prevalent in the United Kingdom and are often registered as private or independent schools. With ACE, pupils are taught to view life from God's point of view. At the moment, there are 6,000 ACE schools in more than 140 countries.
Sexism And Homophobia
Whistle-blowers and former pupils told the Independent that ACE schools are teaching girls to obey men and that homosexuality is a "sin" and people who are sexually attracted to the same sex are "unnatural." The schools are also teaching that creationism is a fact. Evolution, meanwhile, is considered illogical by these Christian fundamentalist schools.
Former students said ACE schools practice sexism and are often regarding women as inferior to males. Females are often viewed as "dangerously sexual" and require being covered up with clothes.
ACE textbooks are also teaching that the Sun is six thousand years old and the world was created by God in six days. What's worse, that information is being taught to students as scientific facts.
Self-Teaching Format And Sexism Against Women
One ACE school is attended by 20 to 60 students with ages between four and 18. According to former pupils, one of the school's primary philosophies is self-salvation, which means children must learn to teach themselves in order to get closer to God and gain admittance in Heaven.
Students spend half of the school day reading textbooks in silence while facing the classroom walls. The pupils sit in booths that are designed to isolate them from their peers via a divider.
They weren't allowed to talk or interact with one another, and they had to use two separate flags to converse and seek help from their teachers. When they use the flags too often, they will be reprimanded. For the second half of the school days, the students were taught in groups.
Former students said the self-teaching format doesn't provide social learning to children. Pupils with learning difficulties like dyslexia also have a harder time studying the lessons.
Actual Education And Learning Are Compromised
Former students attested that ACE schools are not in line with formal education qualifications such as GCSE and A-levels. Instead, ACE schools lean towards International Certificate of Christian Education, or ICCE, which is not officially recognized by the government.
This means that students with ICCE backgrounds have difficulties getting employed and entering higher level education like college universities. Former ACE pupils have to study again or undergo training to attain more formal qualifications.
