AS EDUCATION chiefs in Blackburn decide whether to set up Lancashire's first publicly-funded Islamic schools single-faith teaching has come under fire.

But Blackburn education chief Mark Pattison said: "The town's cultural and religious diversity is one of its greatest strengths and also one of its greatest challenges.

"We live in a pluralist, multi-cultural and multi-faith society.

"Our education system should both reflect that diversity, but also prepare all pupils to live in such a society."

The council had ordered extensive consultations and research on how best the needs of Blackburn's ethnic minority parents could be met, Mr Pattison said.

"Education is one of the main routes out of disadvantage for individuals and communities, and successful schools are fundamental to effective social inclusion in Blackburn with Darwen.

This suggested an approach in which schools played a key role in developing vibrant, successful communities where different religious and cultural needs were understood, respected and met, and where different groups could work together for the future of their communities and the borough as a whole, Mr Pattison said.

It also suggested developing an education system which should include the right to choose a school with a clear religious basis and the right to choose a multi-ethnic and multi-faith school. He added: "There is considerable evidence of demand for change from significant parts of the ethnic minority communities in Blackburn with Darwen."

Mr Pattison pointed out that some existing independent Muslim schools did not appear to have the level of resourcing, curriculum coverage, staffing or specialist features available within local education authority schools.

The Bishop of Blackburn, the Rt Rev Alan Chesters, said that parents were increasingly demanding faith schools for their children.

And community tensions in East Lancashire, coupled with the world terror crisis, must not deter the Church of England from strengthening Christian education, he added.

The recently-published Dearing Report about the future of Church schools represented a major challenge to these schools to become more distinctively Christian communities.

And parishes and dioceses needed to recognise and support church schools as standing at the centre of the Church's mission.

He said: "We must not be faint-hearted in rising to this challenge.

"Recent events - the disturbances in northern towns over the summer, events at the Holy Cross Primary School, Belfast, and the atrocities of September 11 and their aftermath - have all given the voices of secularism a renewed vigour in their opposition to the place of faith within public life and in public institutions."

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