5,000-place Muslim girl school plan
PLANS for a 5,000-place Muslim girls’ boarding school will be scrutinised closely by the Government.
The pledge was made by junior minister Diana Johnson vowed yesterday.
It would be easily the biggest boarding school in the UK, dwarfing the 1,311-place Eton College for boys and the 640-place Cheltenham Ladies’ College.
The Under Secretary for Schools was responding to a question from Gordon Prentice, Labour MP for Pendle in Lancashire, who warned that building the school in his constituency could “undermine community cohesion”.
Charity Islamic Help has launched a funding drive to raise £1million to buy a building that would also include centres for teacher training and counselling.
It pointed out that there was a huge demand as 45 per cent of the UK’s muslim women have no academic qualifications.