Rather than being the problem, “faith schools might be part of the solution in terms of promoting integration and countering extremism,” former Education Secretary Ruth Kelly said this week.
In an opinion piece in the Irish Catholic Ms Kelly addressed the arguments against faith schools, and also looked at why faith schools are required to accept pupils of other faiths and none.
With Ms Kelly’s successor Alan Johnson in 2006 the Education Secretary changed from a member of Opus Dei to “an avowed secularist”. Johnson was the first to attempt to introduce the admissions requirement, but his proposal of 25 per cent from other faiths was quickly blocked by Catholic MPs.
