School prayer, in the context of religious liberty, is state-sanctioned or mandatory prayer by students in public schools. Depending on the country and the type of school, state-sponsored prayer may be required, permitted, or prohibited. The United Kingdom also requires daily worship by law, but does not enforce it. Countries which prohibit or limit school prayer often differ in their reasons for doing so. In the United States, school prayer cannot be required of students in accordance with the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. This is generally rigorously applied in public schools; the Establishment Clause does not prevent prayer in private schools that have no public funding. In Canada, school-sponsored prayer is disallowed under the concept of freedom of conscience as outlined in the Canadian Charter on Rights & Fundamental Freedoms. School-sponsored prayer is disallowed in France as a byproduct of its status as a secular nation.
Countries that permit school-sponsored prayer
Indonesia
School prayers are a longstanding tradition in Indonesian schools. There is no specific law mandating school prayers in Indonesia. Before a religious education lesson, students pray according to their respective religions. On 10 December 2014, Minister of Education and Culture Anies Baswedan proposed to regulate the contents of school prayers before and after school. He denied rumours that he wanted to ban school prayers.
United Kingdom
In England and Wales, the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 states that all pupils in state schools must take part in a daily act of collective worship, unless their parents request that they be excused from attending. A religion required is not, anymore, stated with in the legislative document provided by His Majesty's Government and drafted by the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel, the document furthermore declares that if a parent of a child within the school decides not to receive further religious education, they will be exempt from it hencewith. Despite this statutory requirement for schools to hold a daily act of collective worship, most do not. Ofsted's 2002-03 annual report, for example, stated that 80% of secondary schools were not providing daily worship for all pupils.
School Standards and Framework Act 1998; c. 31; Part II; Chapter VI; Religious Worship; Section 70
70 Requirements relating to collective worship
(1) Subject to section 71, each pupil in attendance at a community, foundation or voluntary school shall on each school day take part in an act of
collective worship.
(2) Subject to section 71, in relation to any community, foundation or voluntary school—
(a) the [F1local authority] and the governing body shall exercise their functions with a view to securing, and
(b) the head teacher shall secure,
that subsection (1) is complied with.
(3) Schedule 20 makes further provision with respect to the collective worship required by this section,
including provision relating to—
(a) the arrangements which are to be made in connection with such worship, and
(b) the nature of such worship.
The Department of Education in England states that all schools must maintain religious prayer in schools in order to reflect the beliefs and traditions of the country, which were conventionally of the Christian faith (as of mid-2010's there has been a demographic increase in the number of schools of Islamic or Muslim nature). However, a recent BBC radio study shows that 64% of children (out of 500) do not attend or participate in daily acts of worship or prayer. Regarding public opinion in the United Kingdom for mandated school prayer, the numbers are relatively similar. In fact, a 2011 survey conducted by BBC found that 60% of parents (out of the 1,743 questioned) believed that the legislation that requires group worship should not be enforced at all. Although parents do retain the right to officially keep their children from taking part in daily worship, there are critics who claim the legislation should be changed or discarded completely in order to allow for religious freedom and cater to the wants of parents, children, and staff.