Catholic schools suffer under faith-based cap

SIR – The arguments advanced by the proponents of a cap on the number of children admitted to faith schools on the basis of religion (Letters, March 6) are admirable.

Open, inclusive, diverse and integrated schools are to be welcomed, and existing Catholic schools provide a very good model for this. A third of their pupils are non-catholic and they educate more than 26,000 Muslim pupils. One in seven ethnic minority pupils in England and Wales attend a Catholic school, including more than one in five black children. These schools educate 21 per cent more pupils from ethnic minority backgrounds compared to other schools, and they perform above the national average at GCSES.

Catholic schools are also more likely to be oversubscribed from people outside their faith community than Islamic and Hindu schools, to which non-muslims and non-hindus rarely apply.

Canon law forbids Catholic bishops from turning away Catholic pupils solely on the basis of their faith. The combination of the cap and popularity of Catholic schools among people of other faiths, however, means that the Catholic Church is required to discriminate on exactly this basis. As such, it has been impossible to open new free schools.

The main practical effect of the admissions cap, then, has been to prevent new Catholic schools from opening, denying thousands of pupils the opportunity of a place in a diverse and nurturing environment. To argue that the operator of the most diverse existing schools cannot be allowed to open new ones for fears they will not be diverse is entirely illogical. Advocates for diversity in education would do better to support the initiative to open more high-quality schools serving many of the most disadvantaged in our society. Scrapping the cap is the simplest and easiest way of achieving this.

Sir Edward Leigh MP (Con) Jacob Rees-mogg MP (Con) Martin Vickers MP (Con)

Sir Bill Cash MP (Con)

London SW1