The bishop of Oxford, John Pritchard, caused a stir
when he said that Church of England schools should aim for no more than
10% of their children to be from Christian families.
Is this a
long-overdue gesture towards fairness, or is it a proposal for
institutional suicide?
The Roman Catholic church has fought off
successfully any suggestion that it should water down the faith
commitment required to enter the schools it operates.
Despite this,
there are many Christian schools in areas of large-scale Muslim
settlement that have a majority of Muslim children: in some cases approaching 100%.
So, on what basis should faith schools be allowed to choose children when they are oversubscribed?
And who should decide this?