Faith, not schooling, key to pupils’ success

PUPILS raised in religious homes are more likely to succeed, regardless of whether they went to a faith school, a study has found.

Research by the UCL Institute of Education found that those attending a religious school were associated with better results at Olevel, but a faith school education did not affect how well the pupils did at A-level or university.

The institute analysed a cohort of pupils born in 1970, their religious upbringing and the school they went to, and found that while Christian pupils at Church of England and Catholic schools did better, this became statistically insignificant when the positive impact of their religious upbringing was factored in.

Part of the analysis found that students at Anglican and Catholic schools had approximately 1.3 times better odds of getting any A-levels, but the faith that the student was raised in was a more important predictor of how they were likely to do.

Previous studies have found that children at faith schools tend to get better exam results, but critics have argued that this is because the schools tend to educate fewer children with special needs or from poorer backgrounds.

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 nonreligious 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.”

The paper suggests that stricter parenting and the protective influence that comes with being part of a faith community could be behind the advantage.