Europe’s first state-funded school for Hindus, which receives its spiritual guidance from the Hare Krishna movement, opens today in London amid continued concern about the divisive nature of faith schools. Krishna-Avanti primary school, in the north-west borough of Harrow, home to about a quarter of the UK’s Hindu population, is welcoming 30 children to its temporary base at Little Stanmore primary school. The school will gradually increase in size until 2014, when it will have filled places for 236 pupils, including a nursery.

Faith schools: Europe’s first state-funded Hindu school opens in London | Education | The Guardian.

Not all Hundus support state-funding for faith schools. The Hindu Academy is one of the organisations (with the BHA) that supports the Accord Coalition, “Working with our supporters across the country to resist the expansion of state-funded religious schools which operate restrictive and discriminatory admissions and employment practices.”

Tags: Hare+Krishna, Hinduism, Faith+schools