First Hindu state school in Britain eyes expansion

London, Jan 30 (ANI): Britain's first state-backed Hindu school, Krishna Avanti, is looking for expansion in the country.

The school says that it is "patently unfair" that Hindus in Britain do not have schools of their own while Jews, Christians, Muslims and Sikhs do.

It is proposing a secondary school costing up to 30 million pounds that would cater for up to 600 pupils, with the ability to expand to 900, plus a sixth form.

Nitesh Gor, chair of the governors, and headteacher, Naina Parmar, have defended the use of 11.1 million pounds of taxpayer money to fund the single-faith primary.

The remaining 2.4 million pounds came from community contributions.

"Hindus also pay taxes and the fact is that they should also have a faith school. The number of faith schools for Hindu is far less proportionate when you compare it to the number of schools that other groups have. There is a disadvantage. It is the responsibility of local authorities and the government to act fairly towards faith schools," the Guardian quoted Gor as saying.

The primary will soon be five times oversubscribed.

The I-Foundation, the charity behind Krisnha Avanti, is considering two locations for a secondary - one in London and the other in Leicester - and is expecting a similar level of demand for places.

However, all the children in the school are not of Indian origin- around 10 percent are white, a mix that gives a "slightly different flavour to the school".

"We are not an exclusivist ghetto. They learn about different religions. We celebrate Christmas and we have links with the local Jewish school. We do not indoctrinate the children to be vegetarian, we just say that we are vegetarian," said Parmar.

He said that the emphasis is placed on inclusiveness, despite an entirely Hindu intake. (ANI)