An opinion poll conducted by the Accord Coalition for Inclusive Education, has found that eighty per cent of those surveyed – including two-thirds of Catholics, are opposed to removing the current cap, which limits schools from not selecting more than half of their pupils on religious grounds.
Last September, the government said that new faith schools would no longer have to offer 50 per cent of their places to those of other religions or none.
But 80 per cent of the 2,000 people asked as part of the research have said they prefer to keep the cap in place.
This included 67 per cent of Catholics and 79 per cent of Anglicans.
Respondents from other religious backgrounds were more enthusiastic about the removal of the cap: 43 per cent of Muslims and 55 per cent of Jews were in favour of allowing schools to select all pupils on the basis of religion.
Jay Harman, of Humanists UK, was unsurprised by the poll’s findings. “Religious and non-religious people alike recognise that both children and society are best served when people from a range of different backgrounds are brought together to learn with and from one another,” he said. [EB News] Read more
