இங்கிலாந்தில் முதலாவது அரசாங்க இந்து பள்ளிக்கூடம் திறப்பு

இங்கிலாந்தில் முதலாவது அரசாங்க இந்து பள்ளிக்கூடம் திறக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது
வாழ்க வளமுடன்

First state Hindu school opens its doors
Britain's first state-funded Hindu school will open this month, despite controversy over admissions policies.

By Graeme Paton, Education Editor
Last Updated: 10:49PM BST 01 Sep 2008

The Krishna-Avanti primary in Harrow, north London, is already heavily over-subscribed.

It will have its own temple, vegetarian catering facilities, and lessons in Sanskrit and yoga.

The school - opening for reception pupils on September 15 - was originally aimed at strictly-vegetarian families, but it provoked claims that it would rule out most of the estimated 15,000 Hindu children living in the borough. The requirement was later ditched, with admissions now being devolved to local temples.

The opening is expected to be the first of many following a Government recommendation that more faith schools should be created where local demand exists.

At the moment, there are 4,621 Anglican schools in England, 2,027 Roman Catholic schools and 26 Methodist schools. A further 38 are classed as Jewish, nine are Muslim and three Sikh.

In total, around a third of all Government-funded schools in England are linked to religious groups.

Critics claim the move risks dividing communities along faith and racial lines.

This week, Accord, a new coalition of secular groups and religious leaders, was formed to lobby the Government to strip schools of the power to select pupils on the basis of faith alone.

But Nitesh Gor, chairman of the new Hindu school's governing body, said: "If we are going to continue to have faith schooling in this country it is unreasonable and discriminatory to deny just a handful of Hindu parents the choice that is already available to much larger numbers of Christians, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs and others.

Faith schools have an excellent record of providing high-quality education and outperforming comparable non-faith schools."