According to this report, a humanist felt he had been unfairly blocked from a committee discussing how faith was taught in schools:
A council spokesman said: “Sacre is a committee to advise the county council on religious education and collective worship.
“In line with most Sacres across the country there is no Humanist representative on Sacre.
Yet these guidelines (pdf p.21) imply that to include a humanist would be good practice. About a quarter of Britons claim to have no religion (which, admittedly, might not precisely equate to atheism). It seems right that our views should be taken into account when designing how a mandatory subject is taught in schools, particularly when atheists suffer discrimination and persecution across the world. Some atheists are interested in interfaith work, and even work as atheist chaplains. It tends to be theists who describe atheism as just another belief system (rather than a simple absence of belief) so, particularly as there are quite a lot of us, perhaps our views should be given the same consideration as any other faith group.
Hat tip: CEMB Forum
