The Catholic Education Service has hit back at claims made by the Chief Inspector of Schools that faith schools lead to increased levels of segregation.
Ofsted chief Amanda Spielman said in an interview with the Sunday Times that she was “uncomfortable” with proposals to remove the admissions faith cap of 50 per cent in new free schools, because “admission 100 per cent on faith leads to increased levels of segregation within communities.”
That view was rejected by Paul Barber, the director of the Catholic Education Service (CES). “Existing Catholic schools, which are not subject to an admissions cap, are the most ethically diverse in the country and educate nearly a quarter of a million non-Catholics”, Mr Barber said.
The 50 per cent cap admissions, a Liberal Democrat policy brought in as part of the coalition with the Conservatives, “failed in its primary aim of producing ethically diverse and culturally mixed schools, ” he added. “This was backed up by the Government’s own research and by Dame Louise Casey’s review into community integration”.
The controversy comes shortly after Prime Minister, Theresa May repeated her support for the lifting of the faith admissions cap in Catholic free schools, saying she expected the proposals would be published in the “near future.”
“We do believe it’s important to enable more faith schools to be set up and faith schools to expand,” she told the House of Commons in Prime Minister’s Questions.
The Department for Education was unable to give a date for any announcement on the admissions policy. A spokesman told The Tablet that lifting the faith cap is part of a consultation entitled ‘Schools that Work for Everyone’ which contained “a range of different proposals” and received “a particularly large number of responses”.
The Tablet understands that the Education Secretary, Justine Greening, may now give her views on the policy, which does not require parliamentary approval, in September. The commitment to remove the faith cap of 50 per cent of one religion at new free schools was part of the Conservatives’ election manifesto.
East Anglia diocese, which has proposals for new Catholic free schools for 4,400 pupils, said it will not be able to open the schools unless the cap is lifted as canon law prohibits Catholic schools from turning away pupils because of their catholicism.
PICTURE: Theresa May (seen visiting a Secondary State school in Bristol) repeated her support for the lifting of the faith admissions cap in Catholic free schools, saying she expected the proposals would be published in the “near future”
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