All-white schools to be forced to find multi-ethnic twins

All-white schools will be legally obliged to twin with multi-ethnic schools as part of a new government drive to promote better community relations.

Ministers are placing a new responsibility on all schools to promote "community cohesion" between racial and religious groups. But the move, announced yesterday, was condemned by headteachers' leaders last night as "unnecessary" and "bureaucratic".

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Under guidance published by the Department for Education and Skills today, schools will have a legal duty from September "to eliminate unlawful racial discrimination and to promote equality of opportunity and good relations between different groups".

The Schools minister, Jim Knight, told the National Association of Head Teachers' (NAHT) annual conference in Bournemouth yesterday that the move meant schools setting up twinning arrangements. He cited the example of a faith school in his own constituency of Dorset South which had an outstanding inspection report but whose pupils had never met a Muslim or Hindu child.

"I am keen that faith-based schools should start twinning with schools of other faiths," he said. He said that if a school refused to abide by the new legal requirement it would be exposed by Ofsted, the education standards watchdog.

"It is a legal obligation to deliver this duty," he added.

The guidance states: "Every school - whatever its intake and wherever it is located - is responsible for educating children and young people who will live and work in a country which is diverse in terms of culture, faith, ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds."

Mr Knight also gave the example of a junior school in Weymouth, Dorset, whose pupils had spent a week in London - including a visit to a school in Tower Hamlets with which it had previously been twinned online. The link had been set up by a teacher who had moved from one school to the other.

Figures show that only 2 per cent of the country's 3,000 secondary schools and 5 per cent of the 24,000 primary schools have no ethnic minority pupils. In addition, 277 primary schools and 46 secondary schools have more than 50 per cent Bangladeshi or Pakistani pupils.

Mick Brookes, general secretary of the NAHT, said of the initiative: "I winced. My heart sank. It seems like another stick to beat schools with. They think of something and they make it law and then Ofsted kicks in and - if you don't do it - you lose your job. Schools at the heart of the community is a great idea but they are there already."

John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders - which represents secondary heads, added: "It is an unnecessary statutory responsibility for schools in an area where schools are already in the front line."