Faith Leaders Hold 'Inclusive Meeting', Archbishop Resists New School Plan

Following plans for new faith schools in England to admit up to 25 per cent of pupils from other religions, Education Secretary Alan Johnson met with representatives from the UK's major religious groups on Monday for an "inclusion summit".

The aim of the meeting was to discuss the role faith schools can play in improving relations between the faiths.

At the summit, the Archbishop of Birmingham has expressed that the plans to introduce a quota for non-Christian pupils "must be resisted".

The most Rev Vincent Nichols described the plans as "insulting" and "divisive" and has urged the head teachers of Catholic schools to voice their fears.

Writing in The Telegraph newspaper, the Archbishop said coercive measures by the government would not win co-operation and branded them "ill-thought out, unworkable and contradictory of empirical evidence".