No surprise a
teacher's union is all for this plan, though you can be sure some of the general population are not buying it.
State schools must allow children to practise their faith by inviting in preachers such as imams and introducing prayer rooms and religious holidays, the country's biggest teaching union said yesterday.
They should make arrangements for pupils to be given "instruction" in their own religion during the normal school day and rights to pray and worship instead of attending regular assemblies, the National Union of Teachers said.
Schools should also allow different uniform rules, serve meals that meet religious requirements such as halal and kosher, plan holidays around festivals and special days and provide private prayer rooms.
The call comes as new research today shows the numbers attending mosques in England and Wales will outstrip Roman Catholic churchgoers by 2020.
Christian Research expects Catholic worshippers at Sunday Mass to fall to 679,000 but Muslims at Friday prayer to increase to 683,000. The figures also suggest the number of Muslims at mosques will overtake Church of England members at Sunday services.
Naturally, some aren;t buying the multicultural mumbo-jumbo.
Tory MP Douglas Carswell, a member of the Commons Children, Schools and Families Committee, said the plan amounted to "social engineering" and accused the NUT of attempting to impose an "aggressive multi-cultural agenda".
Launching the paper, NUT general secretary Steve Sinnott said the dominance of England's Christian schools was "unjust and unsustainable" amid growing demands from Muslim families who want their own religious state schools.
There was now "every argument for the curriculum and staffing to respond positively both to the diversity of faiths within schools".
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