Currently pupils attending faith schools outside their catchment area are provided free transport to enable them to attend the schools on religious grounds.
In the case of pupils who seek education out of their catchment area on grounds other than religious beliefs, the parents are required to shoulder the responsibility of bringing their children to and from the schools by themselves.
The issue of free travel to faith schools has received a mixed reaction from Blyth Valley Council, while Cllr Bernard Pidcock claimed that faith schools ‘breed bigotry’.
Numerous councillors throughout the region have also come out to argue that faith schools are a form of prejudice and that all pupils in the education system should be treated the same, reports Blyth and Wansbeck Today.
It is expected that the county council will decide in favour of axing the free transport provision to faith schools outside the catchment area, forcing parents to find other means of transport.At the end of the day it is about individual choice and this is discrimination.
Cllr Wayne Daley, Northumberland County Council
Cllr Ian Tompkins said: “Choice in schools is government policy but choices have costs.
"So if parents choose to send their children out of the catchment area, they should pick up the cost of doing so."
Meanwhile Cllr Pidcock said that children should be able to be educated in a faith system if that is the wish of the parents while expressing his disapproval of faith schools.
"If parents want their children to be brought up in a faith system they should be allowed to do that, but not in the existing education system,” he said.
Cllr Pidcock added that children should be taught in a multi-cultural environment and not be segregated from people of different backgrounds.
"I am not against faith education, but I am against faith schools," he said. "I really genuinely believe they breed prejudice and bigotry."Around 700 children at Roman Catholic and Church of England first and middle schools throughout the region benefit from the free home to school transport currently provided by the county council at an annual cost of around £600,000.
