Keith Vaz
Main Page: Keith Vaz (Labour - Leicester East)Department Debates - View all Keith Vaz's debates with the Department for Education
(9 years, 10 months ago)
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Nicky Morgan
In May, the Conservative party will be committing to have the highest-qualified teaching profession ever, something we have already achieved under this Government. We now have more teachers with 2:1 or first degrees in our schools, and the successful initial teacher training system, as Andrew Carter has reported in his review today—[Interruption.] If the Labour party wants to talk about unqualified teachers, it ought to look at the shadow Secretary of State, who teaches in his local schools as an unqualified teacher.
Keith Vaz (Leicester East) (Lab)
10. What recent assessment she has made of the role of faith schools; and if she will make a statement.
The Secretary of State for Education (Nicky Morgan)
Church and faith schools have made a significant contribution to the education system in England for hundreds of years. Many of the best performing schools in our country are church and faith schools. Parents of all faiths and none value these schools for the quality of the education and for their strong ethos, and I am a great supporter of them.
Keith Vaz
As the Secretary of State knows, Leicester has the Hindu Krishna Avanti school, Madani Muslim school and the Falcons school, which she opened very recently. They all provide an excellent education for local children. I am sure that today many of them, as part of their duties, will be painting birthday cards to send to Mr Speaker. There will be an application for a secondary Hindu school by the Krishna Avanti group. Will she look favourably on that application?
Nicky Morgan
Knowing the right hon. Gentleman, I suspect that he will have a photograph taken of him with the children painting their cards and it will appear in the Leicester Mercury very shortly. I would be delighted to join him if that is the case. He will know that all applications for new schools are studied rigorously by the Department and by colleagues. We have to follow a process, but I will look forward to hearing more about that application in due course.