Ruth Kelly, the former Education Secretary, has added her voice to calls for a notorious cap on faith-based admissions to new Catholic schools to be scrapped.
The former Labour Party MP, who served as Education Secretary under Tony Blair, said that the cap made it difficult for the Catholic Church to open potentially successful schools and that it should go.
“Catholic schools are some of the best in the country,” said Miss Kelly, a member of the Opus Dei personal prelature.
She said: “The care and quality of the teaching is recognised by parents and pupils of all faiths and none.
“It is clearly frustrating that a policy designed to make it easier to open schools outside local authority control has actually made it harder in some cases.
“Lifting the cap, and allowing the Catholic Church in this country to take part in the free school programme along with other groups in society, is a very sensible approach. I’m pleased to be supporting this campaign from the Catholic Union.”
In 2010 the Coalition Government of ex-Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron introduced the cap to ensure that half of all pupils and students attending newly-built faith schools did not belong to that particular faith.
The Catholic bishops have consistently argued that the rule unfairly discriminates against Catholic students for whom the schools were intended because many would be unable to attend because their places were allocated instead to non-believers.
The Church will not pay for new Catholic free schools if they result in pupils being turned away on the basis of their Catholic faith.
The Catholic Union of Great Britain, a lay association which makes representations to Parliament on behalf of the Catholic Church, is urging the Conservatives to honour the manifesto commitment of 2017 to remove the cap, which was never delivered.
Miss Kelly, who served as Education Secretary from 2004 to 2006, is the vice chair of the Catholic Union.
She was elected as the Labour MP for Bolton East in the landslide general election victory of 1997 and stepped down from Parliament in 2010 after also serving as Transport Secretary, and Communities and Local Government Secretary.
More than 700 people, including several Catholic bishops, have signed an open letter from the Catholic Union to Education Secretary Gillian Keegan asking that she honours Tory promises to reverse the policy.
Lancashire-born Ms Keegan, Conservative MP for Chichester, has herself benefited from a Catholic education, having attended St Augustine of Canterbury Catholic High School in the Archdiocese of Liverpool.
In January, she represented the British Government at the funeral of Pope Benedict XVI.
Bishop Marcus Stock of Leeds, the chairman of the Catholic Education Service, an agency of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales; Archbishop Bernard Longley of Birmingham, Bishop Peter Collins of East Anglia and Bishop Paul Swarbrick of Lancaster are among those to sign the letter.
The letter points out that Catholic schools, academies and colleges in England and Wales educate just under 850,000 pupils, representing nine per cent of the national total of maintained schools.
“Our schools are extremely popular with parents and pupils, not only because of their academic performance – five percentage points higher than national GCSE Maths and English scores – but because of the care and quality of the teaching,” the letter says.
“While Catholic schools are some of the best performing in the country, there are barriers preventing them from achieving further success. This includes the admissions cap, which the Catholic Union and others have been calling to be scrapped.
“The policy has had the effect of making it impossible for new Catholic free schools to open, putting pressure on existing Catholics schools. This is a particular problem for parents of SEND children as it limits their choice.”
The letter adds: “There has never been any evidence to justify the cap. Our schools are already extremely diverse in terms of background and religion of pupils. Nearly half are from an ethnic minority background, compared to a third in the state sector. Our schools also educate more pupils from the most deprived backgrounds.
“There are many other challenges facing Catholic schools, including pay and conditions for staff and the pressure of inspections, which we urge you to address. Lifting the cap would help boost morale for those involved in Catholic education as well as making a real difference to pupils and parents.
“We hope that you will use your time as Secretary of State to back Catholic schools and scrap the cap.”
The Catholic Union is encouraging Catholics to sign the open letter to Ms Keegan.
Please clickhereto read and sign the letter to the Education Secretary Gillian Keegan.
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