Free school for Sikhs approved in British city

London, May 24 (IANS) A free school to cater to members of the Sikh community has been approved in the British city of Leicester.

Leicestershire’s education department has approved a bid put forward by nine gurdwara leaders for a school especially for Sikh students, the Leicester Mercury reported.

This was the second bid after a similar one was rejected last July on the ground that it was not strong enough.

Though the school will be open to students from other two faiths too, half its seats will be reserved for Sikh students.

“The group (of gurdwara leaders) has worked incredibly hard to reach this position and we look forward to working with it as its plans progress,” the report quoted Vi Dempster, assistant city mayor for schools, as saying.

“It’s particularly heartening that it is committed to working in partnership with the council and schools across the city in the best interests of all of our children.”

Free schools are paid for by the state and are usually set up by charities, parents and teachers and need not follow the national curriculum.

The new school will be named Falcon’s Primary and is scheduled to open in Sep 2014 at a site not announced yet.

Only vegetarian food will be served in the school.

Leicester is one of the cities in Britain with a very high ethnic minority population.

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