THE UK’s first state-maintained Hindu school, due to open in September, is associated with the Hare Krishna movement, it has emerged.
The Krishna Avanti primary school and nursery, is in Camrose Avenue, Harrow, north London, an area where almost 20 per cent of population is of Indian Hindu origin. The school is a voluntary aided foundation promoted by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKON).
Officials from the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) were present when the school site was blessed by Hare Krishna priests earlier this month. Church of England officials with expertise in the rules surrounding voluntary aided status gave unofficial advice to the project, it is understood.
Exploratory talks on the possibility of a joint Church of England/ Hindu school are expected to begin later this year. A possible venue is St Ethelburga’s Centre for Peace and Reconciliation.
The Church of England’s schools development officer, Canon David Whittington, said such an initiative would be welcomed nationally.
The mainstream Hindu Council UK is thought to have remained aloof from the initiative, however. The Hindu Council-backed Swaminarayan School, in Neasden, which, with its associated nursery, takes 500 pupils from two to 18, remains fully independent, charging fees of around £2300 a term.
The school, which runs the Duke of Edinburgh Scheme for senior pupils, has GCSE and A-level results which outperform many leading public schools.
There are no current plans to seek aided status for the Swaminarayan School, said the Hindu Council’s Director of Education, Jay Lakhani.
Government willingness to approve maintained status for the ISKON-sponsored Krishna Avanti School is in line with its increasing readiness to go beyond mainstream religious organisations in its educational partnerships. Possibly the first of these was the John Loughborough School in Haringey, a voluntary aided Seventh Day Adventist foundation. It has also approved plans for an academy in Herefordshire sponsored by the Rudolf Steiner organisation. |
back to News
previous story
|
next story 
back to top
