Ed Balls has promised to take action against faith schools that pursue covert selection at the Fabian Society question time fringe debate.
According to the Fabians' own report on the debate:
"Schools secretary Ed Balls pledged to put faith schools under pressure to take a fairer social mix of pupils, responding to fears about 'covert selection by faith' at the Fabian fringe question time event on Sunday.
'We are not going to abolish 200 years of history. But many faith schools were set up specifically to give a decent education to the poor. They have a right to educate children in their faith, but they should not be less likely to educate poorer children of that faith', said Balls, agreeing with Anthony Giddens, who said that LSE research provided evidence that some faith schools could 'covert selection', being less representative of the social mix of their catchment areas
'We have a tough admissions code. It is right to say that faith schools – unlike academies, as it happens – currently take a lower number of pupils on free school meals than their catchment areas', said Balls."
Lord Giddens was referring to new research from the LSE which found that 17 per cent of pupils at faith schools are eligible for free school meals compared with 25 per cent at non-religious schools. Faith schools educate just under 20 per cent of lowest-ability pupils compared with 31 per cent of non-religious schools. Faith schools also educate a greater proportion of the pupils who score highest before arriving in secondary education.
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