Government proposals to give every school in England the chance to become a grammar school "can only be counter-productive", according to Rev Steve Chalke.

The government's plan to allow schools to select by academic ability and to relax the selection rules for faith schools have caused a furore in the worlds both of education and politics.

The founder of Christian charity Oasis, which through its education trust Oasis Community Learning is responsible for 47 Academies in England and is one of the UK's biggest education providers, said none of its schools would select students by ability or by faith.

Chalke said: "I welcome the Prime Minister's goal of increasing social mobility for the poorest in society, but any attempt to sift and separate students at 11 years old can only be counter-productive to this.

"Through the pioneering of Academy groups such as Oasis, many communities now have good or outstanding local schools for the first time in history. This has not been achieved by selection by ability but by a ruthless commitment to helping every child reach their potential regardless of their starting point.

"Oasis is a large Christian Foundation which runs schools in communities around the country based on a commitment to the principle of inclusion. We do not and will never select based on either faith or ability. This would be anathema to us."

He concluded: "Rather than emphasising a return to selection, I call on the government to continue to back and fund the proven models that we know can deliver."

Many educationists are firmly opposed to the return of grammar schools, with chief inspector of schools Sir Michael Wilshaw telling the BBC this morning: "We will fail as a nation if we only get the top 15-20 per cent of our children achieving well.

"We've got to, if we're going to compete with the best in the world, get many more children to achieve well in our schools.

"My fear is that by dividing children at 11 and by creating grammars and secondary moderns – because that's what we'll do – that we won't be able to achieve that ambition."

A return to some form of selective education has long been a cherished vision of many Conservatives, but not all are in favour of the new proposals. Sarah Wollaston MP tweeted her opposition, saying she strongly opposed "100 per cent faith schools" which "can have nothing to contribute to a more integrated and cohesive society". Referring to Prime Minister Theresa May's words on assuming office, she told the BBC: "If you stand on the steps of Downing Street and talk about wanting to reduce inequality, I think you have to follow the evidence and, I'm afraid, sooner or later you have to deliver on evidence-based policies."

She added: "I think we need to be very careful that we're not ending up giving one message but introducing policies that go in the opposite direction."

Education secretary Justine Greening told ITV's Good Morning Britain programme: "We are going to be setting out some conditions around how grammar schools can expand and new grammar schools, and the fact we do want to see existing grammars do more to work with local communities, and more to make sure that disadvantaged and low-income background children can get into grammars and benefit."