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The British government has long funded faith-based schools. Most have a Christian-based curriculum. Now the first state-funded Hindu elementary school has opened in London Kevin Bocquet has more.

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MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman, this is The World.  Here in the United States religious schools are private institutions.  In Britain, though, many religious schools are funded directly by the government.  They are also controversial.  Some critics in Britain feel that state funded religious schools segregates students based on faith.  Others say the schools often attract too many students from well off families.  Such criticism didn’t stop the opening of Britain’s first ever state funded Hindu school.  It’s an elementary school that cost almost 20 million taxpayer dollars to set up.  Kevin Bocquet has more from London.

KEVIN BOCQUET: When you catch your first glimpse of the Krishna-Avanti primary school, it’s a very, very striking building.  It looks rather like an up market Alpine ski lodge.  Across the front of the building all sorts of Hindu decorations, paintings of lotuses and conch shells.  So far, the school has only two classes of children age four to six.  It’ll take another five years to fill all the classes and by then there’ll be nearly 250 children.  All these pupils come from Hindu families.  But the head teacher of the Krishna-Avanti school, Naina Parmur, said they were deliberately forging links with other schools in the area.

NAINA PARMUR:  We’ve got a wonderful link with the local Jewish school and of course other local schools.  Our actual fundamental mission is to understand that every human being, every living thing is a spirit soul and that spirit soul transcends race, class, gender.  In a way we’re just applying our faith.

JONATHAN ROMAINE:  Well I’m sure they genuinely mean that, but the inevitable social effect is they are separating, they’re segregating those children.  They’re almost sort of locking them off in a sort of academic ghetto and they are not going to meet children from other faiths.

BOCQUET: Rabbi Jonathan Romaine chairs the Accord Coalition which campaigns against state funded religious schools.  He said was particularly disappointed that the U.K.’s first Hindu school was built in Harrow, an area with an excellent reputation for racial integration.

ROMAINE:  It’s not just the children who are being separated, it’s the adults too.  Because the parents will no longer meet outside the school gate, or at the school fete or at parent/teacher’s evenings.

PARMUR:  Does anybody remember any of the key words in the reciprocal reading?  Student:  Florence Nightingale.  Absolutely, Florence Nightingale.

BOCQUET: Like every state funded religious school, the Krishna-Avanti teaches the government mandated national curriculum.  That includes educating the children about all the major world faiths.  But there is also a heavy emphasis on Hinduism and that’s what the parents say they want for their children.

PARENT:  I want my children to be imbibed with those principles of good qualities of truthfulness, honesty, humility, forgiveness and also to understand that there’s something higher in life than just the material things.

PARENT 2:  Each and every other faith have their own schools except Hindu school.  So this is the first state school and that’s stopped me sending my son back to India for education.  So he can have education here.

BOCQUET: In addition to the money it received from the government, the school has raised millions locally to build a small temple within the school complex.  It’s now very over-subscribed with around four or five applicants for every place available.  I asked Nitesh Gor, Chair of the School Board if this meant more Hindu families would want to move into the area and if this might lead to the creation of a Hindu ghetto.

NITESH GOR:   There will be a number of individuals who may move to the area.  But of course you’ll see transition between other Hindu families moving out of the area and I think the important thing to bear in mind here is how integrated are they within the community and what else is going on in the community for them to be involved in.  I think that’s the important thing to bear in mind.

BOCQUET: Around a third of state funded schools in England, that’s more than six and a half thousand, have some kind of religious connection, mostly with the major Christian denominations.  And now that the Hindus finally have their first public primary school, they hope to establish state secondary schools in London and in Leicester.  For The World, this is Kevin Bocquet in London.

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