Evolution is 'absurd', Men are superior to women - Former students express concern at UK Christian school system

Former students of Accelerated Christian Education schools have raised concerns about the education system, including isolating kids from other students, teaching that women must submit to men, and claiming that evolution is "absurd." Moreover, students are reportedly not equipped with formal education to prepare them for higher learning and employment.

"By the time I left the school, I hadn't really learnt anything that was of any relevance," a former pupil told The Independent. "I was taught facts and figures from reading the books, but there was no social learning in terms of interaction."

According to the report, ACE schools teach students toward an International Certificate of Christian Education rather than for GCSEs or A-levels or other formal education qualifications. The ICCE is reportedly not officially recognized as a qualification; thus, students may have difficulty getting higher education or employment. 

"Since 2014, the Advertising Standards Authority has upheld three complaints against ACE schools for exaggerating the acceptability of the certificates [ICCE] they offer," said former ACE student Jonny Scaramanga, who completed a PHD thesis about ACE at the UCL Institute of Education. "I have met numerous former ACE students who have had to return to college as adults to gain qualifications that they would have earned as a matter of course in mainstream schools." 

The ACE website, on the other hand, has a partial list of colleges and universities in the U.S., U.K., and other countries that have accepted invidual ACE students.

In terms of what ACE teaches, former pupils said that they were expected to self-learn during the first half of the school day, reading their textbooks in silence inside their booths. Group teaching reportedly happens in the second half of the day.

"We sat at our desks which were arranged around the outside of the room, with boards that slid in called 'dividers' that sectioned us off from the pupil either side," Dr. Matthew Pocock told The Independent. "We were not allowed to talk or interact with each other."

As a child, Pocock attended an ACE school in Witney, Oxfordshire. He said that students had two flags each. A student raises one flag for asking questions or for asking permission to go to the toilet, and the other is to let the teacher know that they are ready to take a test. They would be "told off" if they raised the flags too often.

The publication had also gotten hold of textbooks believed to be used in ACE schools. One of them reads in part, "The husband is to be the leader of the home, loving his wife even as Christ loved the church. ... The wife is to obey, respect and submit to the leadership of her husband, serving as a helper to him. ... She is available all times day or night."

There is also a passage titled "Testimony of a Homemaker" that says in part that "God desires for me to submit to my husband."

"I came across a lot of sexism. I remember as a girl finding it quite shocking. We were taught that if you're a woman, you should be subservient to men; your husband, your pastor and other male figures," Cheryl Povey, a former pupil of an ACE school in Bath, said. "There was a strong culture of men being revered and women being dangerously sexual and having to cover up. It made me self-conscious of being a woman."

Pocock, likewise, said that he was taught that men were superior to weak women and they should be in charge of them, and that God ordained different social and ethnic groups to have different roles and positions.

Another passage from a textbook reads: "Homosexual activity is another of man's corruption of God's plan. ... The Bible teaches that homosexuality is sin. In the Old Testament times, God commanded that homosexuals be put to death. Since God never commandedd death for normal or acceptable actions, it is as unreasonable to say that homosexuality is normal as it is to say that murder or stealing is normal."

Moreover, the curriculum reportedly teaches students that creationism is fact and "evolution is absurd." One textbook teaches that the world was created in six days and that the sun is 6,000 years old.

ACE schools are registered as private; thus, some regulations that state schools are required to follow may not apply to them. Scaramanga, however, said that all English secondary schools should be required to prepare students for qualifications recognized by exam watchdog Ofqual.

"ACE schools, like all other independent schools, are inspected against the new, tougher Independent School Standards, and where there are concerns a school is failing to meet these standards we will not hesitate to take action," said an Ofsted spokesperson.

According to the report, ACE originated from an educational system that was developed in the southern Baptist states in the United States. It eventually spread around the world, including in the United Kingdom.