Faith schools: Why is the cap issue so sensitive?

Mar 6, 2018 by

by James Macintyre, Christian Today:

The divisive issue has caused ‘blue on blue’ Tory infighting, and now the former archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has lined up with his sometime opponent and prominent atheist Richard Dawkins to go against the Catholic Church and the new Conservative education secretary on the subject.

Williams has led a group of 70 public figures, politicians and academics who today argue in a letter that a 50 per cent cap for faith schools on admissions on the basis of religion, introduced in 2010, must not be lifted.

So why is the issue so sensitive?

It is one of those few areas which cut across both politics and religious affairs, where normally you see conservative faith leaders pitted against the increasingly secular Westminster world. But Dr Williams and his colourful collection of allies have changed that. They reject Catholic and Muslim pleas for more freedom, warning instead against exclusive religious communities of pupils and teachers.

The controversy began in earnest when, last year, the prime minister Theresa May pledged to lift the cap, reportedly on the advice of her former Number Ten aide and ideologist-in-chief, Nick Timothy.

But the pledge to scrap the cap was abandoned by the centrist former education secretary Justine Greening after the schools watchdog Ofsted warned it would lead to ‘increased segregation’.

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