Catholic church plans more schools as Keegan looks to scrap faith admission cap

THE Catholic Church is poised to open more schools as Gillian Keegan confirms plans to scrap a limit on faith admissions in England. The Education Secretary will launch a consultation today on lifting a cap on faith-based admissions which stops free schools and academies from selecting more than half of pupils on religious grounds.

The Catholic Church has long opposed the cap, introduced in 2010, arguing that turning pupils away on the basis of their Catholic faith goes against canon law. Bishops have said they cannot sanction the creation of Catholic free schools while the cap is in place.

If the cap is removed, oversubscribed faith-based free schools will be able to select up to 100 per cent of their intake based on pupils’ religious belief.

Responding to the proposals, Ruth Kelly, Catholic Union vice president, said: “The Catholic Church is one the oldest providers of education in this country, and Catholic schools consistently produce higher than average results. The fact that Catholic free schools were prevented from opening never made sense.”

Mrs Keegan, who attended a Catholic school, said she had seen first-hand how faith schools “often give young people a brilliant start in life”. She said it was “absolutely right we support them to unleash that potential even further”.

It is understood existing faith-based free schools, which currently have to adhere to the 50 per cent rule if oversubscribed, will be able to apply to have the cap lifted if the plans go ahead.

However, campaigners and education union leaders said the plans would be a “retrograde step” and “wrongheaded” as they argued more faith schools will exacerbate “discrimination, division and disadvantage”.

Andrew Copson, chief executive of Humanists UK, said: the proposal “will further disadvantage poorer families, non-religious families, and families of the ‘wrong’ religion”.

Stephen Evans, chief executive of the National Secular Society, said lifting the cap would “exacerbate the discrimination, division, and disadvantage that faith based education encourages”.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, said it was worried that removing the cap is “an unnecessary and potentially retrograde step”.