Catholic campaign succeeds, UK government drops faith quotas for schools

London, England, Oct 29, 2006 / 22:00 pm

The British government changed its plan to impose admission quotas on faith-based schools, after Catholics nationwide launched a letter-writing campaign to protest the measure.

Just four days before the measure was to be introduced to Parliament, Education Secretary Alan Johnson announced that faith schools would not be forced into reserving 25 percent of their admissions for students of other religions or of no religion at all, reported The Universe.

Last week, Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Birmingham had written to all Catholic schools, which includes more than 2,000 head teachers, urging them to express their opposition to the measure.

The archbishop also met with Johnson last Wednesday. Johnson agreed that the government would come up with the money for extra places in schools should there be a demand from non-Catholics in the local community to attend a Catholic school.

The archbishop welcomed the decision to resolve the issue without legislation.

“We came to a broad agreement about how future Catholic schools could be planned in ways that ensure they always meet the needs of Catholic parents,” the archbishop said about his meeting with Johnson.

The archbishop thanked the Catholics who wrote their members of Parliament and the parliamentarians who took action in this regard.