Although they have not been one of the main issues, faith schools have been discussed in the election campaign.
Speaking yesterday, Nick Clegg said that faith schools should be ‘engines of integration not silos of segregation’ welcoming pupils from all faiths. The Daily Mail also reports that although faith schools would not be expected to set a quota of pupils from different faiths, they would be expected to be ‘as open as possible’.
The statements reflect the party policy, which supports the principle of faith schools, but will require them to be more inclusive in their admissions, less discriminatory in their employment rules and more balanced in their Religious Education lessons.
In an article for the Jewish Chronicle, also published yesterday, Gordon Brown gave an endorsement of faith schools but did make clear that the government will not seek to reverse the judgement of the Supreme Court which affects Jewish school admissions.
The ruling found that the admissions rules of some Jewish schools were contrary to race relations legislation, and some had called for this decision to be overturned by the government.
Instead, the Mr Brown gave the commitment that Labour would “uphold the decision of the Supreme Court based on their interpretation of existing legislation”, while making clear that there was scope to discuss with the Jewish community how it might be implemented.
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