Faith schools fail to improve standards and create “social sorting” of children along lines of class, ability and religion, researchers said yesterday.

Academics at the London School of Economics and the Institute of Education, both part of the University of London, found no proof that providing parents with the choice of a religious secondary school either raised results or helped drive up standards in other local schools.

The research suggests that government policies to promote a market in education – by promising parents a choice of school in the belief that the competition for children will improve standards – only create a more socially fragmented system.

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