Those who argue that state funding of religious education can lead to undesirable state control now have a poster child in Scotland. In Britain, faith schools are government-funded. As of last August, there were 7,000 faith schools in England. Of these, 6,955 were Christian, with 36 Jewish, five Muslim and two Sikh schools. Tony Blair favors making it easier for independent schools, including Islamic, Christian and Jewish institutions, to opt into the state sector and receive state funding. (Education Guardian article.)
St Albert's Primary school in the Glascow suburb of Pollokshields is a state-funded Catholic school. However, more than 75% of its students are Muslim. Today's Education Guardian reports that pressure is now growing to turn this school, located in the midst of Scotland's largest Pakistani community, into a Muslim school. Currently there are no state-funded Muslim schools in Scotland. Last year, Glasgow's largest mosques and Muslim organizations formed the Campaign for Muslim Schools to press the issue. It's spokesman, Osama Saeed, said, "The national policy on faith schools is that, whenever there is a demand from a faith community, there should be a school. Ergo, there should be a Muslim school here." However Scotland's first minister, Jack McConnell, seems to believe that faith schools can be divisive. He has announced that children from denominational and non-denominational schools will be brought together for various activities like school trips and drama.
