"We want to meet the rights of parents to give their children a faith-based education in accordance with their Islamic beliefs," Shadow Schools Secretary Michael Gove told the Yorkshire Post on Monday, June 1.

The opposition party plans to allow Muslim parents, charities and trusts to build new Islamic schools.

"The reality is that parents, who want to can send their children to an independent Islamic school, can send them to madrasahs for religious teaching after school."

There are some 400,000 Muslim students in Britain, home to a sizable Muslim minority of nearly two million.

The minority is only served by seven Islamic schools while the country has a total of about 7,000 faith schools teaching nearly a fifth of primary school children and 5 percent of secondary pupils in Britain.

Most of the faith schools belong to Church of England, Roman Catholic and other Christian denominations, serving 1.7 million pupils.

There are 37 Jewish and two Sikh schools.

Checks

Shadow Schools Secretary Gove says new Islamic schools would be subject to "formidable checks" to respect British values.

"(We will allow them) while at the same time ensuring that these schools are properly run and promoting the values of a modern Britain."

He said the new schools would be monitored by well-trained inspectors able to distinguish between moderate and extremist teachings.

"(This will give) a sense that we are all one nation who have made a certain set of shared sacrifices but enjoy certain shared freedoms."

Nick Seaton of the York-based Campaign for Real Education applauded the Tory plan.

"It is a good idea to allow groups to set up their own schools to educate children according to their own values."

He agrees with the Tory that such schools must be regulated effectively and subject to rigorous inspection from the Office for Standards in Education.

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