From the Times online: Faith schools 'must follow guidelines' By Glen Owen, Education Correspondent FAITH schools should be established only if they conform to strict guidelines on religious and cultural equality, a teachers’ leader said yesterday. Warning against a string of “Osama bin Laden academies”, Peter Smith, the general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said that the Government should guard against the influence of “heavily bankrolled” religious groups attempting to open schools.

His call, before a debate on the subject at the ATL’s Cardiff conference today, comes after the controversy over Emmanuel College, a state-funded school in Gateshead that teaches anti-evolutionary theories. Tony Blair, who is in favour of expanding the number of church schools, said that the argument over Emmanuel had been overblown, and he highlighted its strong academic record.

Mr Smith said that he supported only faith schools that were prepared to admit children from other religions and could justify why they wanted to teach religion differently from other local schools.

-- Bob in WI (bjwick@hotmail.com), March 27, 2002