Oona Stannard, director of the Catholic Education Service for England and Wales, said: “The CES supports the right of Catholic governing bodies to determine their own admissions criteria. We see no need to obligate new faith schools to take a percentage of pupils of other faiths , but if this is the wish of the local community, relevant partners and promoters, then we respect their wishes.”
Keith Porteous Wood, director of the National Secular Society, said: “Only when pupils are selected on equal terms, regardless of religion, is inclusivity achieved. If a faith school is run with public money, then it should be available to all taxpayers. Other religions have no less entitlement to faith schools than Christians, but if we carry on blindly with more faith schools, within a generation our education system will be irrevocably splintered along religious and racial lines.”
Pete Broadbent, Bishop of Willesden and chair of the London diocesan board for schools, said: “The admissions policy is a matter for the governing body but we produce guidelines. Usually fairly high on the agenda are places for children of other faiths and community places. There is no sense in which we are a sectarian ghetto. I believe that a faith-based school has something extra to offer but it doesn’t follow that the quality of education will be good.”
Jonathan Sacks, chief rabbi, said: “Faith schools must teach and exemplify tolerance to those of other faiths. The way to do this is not to insist that they be compelled to take pupils of other faiths or no faith. It is, rather, to require that they demonstrate, through teaching and practical programmes, a willingness to engage with the society, beyond the boundaries of their community.”
Mithran Samuel
