Plans for more Muslim faith schools

A major expansion of Islamic schools within the state sector is being planned by the Conservatives.

Education spokesman Tim Collins told the Evening Standard the aim was to encourage more religiousbased schools, with Muslim communities in London expected to take up the chance.

The move comes after a report saying Muslim youngsters are often failed by the state sector but would thrive if they were allowed more faith-based schools. The Muslims in Education study, by a group of academics and teachers, said there were "major populations" without suitable schools.

Although Muslims are the largest minority community in the UK they currently have only five state schools compared with 80 in the independent sector. "We want more Islamic schools set up by Muslim religious leaders," said Mr Collins. "Faith schools have a very successful track record but there are so many constraints at present that Muslim communities have found their schools driven into the independent sector or kept under the thumb of education authorities."

He added: "In future, all they would have to do would be to agree to be inspected by Ofsted once a year and have a minimum of 10 per cent of pupils from other backgrounds."

In his keynote speech to the Bournemouth conference today, Mr Collins was accusing Labour of failing pupils. He says that one in three left primary school unable to read and write properly, while lax discipline has led to teachers being attacked by pupils at the rate of one every seven minutes. Headteachers are being buried under an avalanche of red tape, he says, with 12 pages of new government paperwork arriving every school day.

He was pledging a series of reforms, including:

"Labour have had their chance to improve our schools and it hasn't worked," he was due to say. "We will cut teachers' paperwork, restore discipline in schools and give parents the opportunity to choose the best school for their children."