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Imams, rabbis, priests and preachers from other faiths could be invited into state schools to provide religious instruction to pupils who want it, under controversial reforms to faith education.

The National Union of Teachers (NUT) is also recommending that schools provide “private prayer space” for pupils of all faiths, recognise the holy days of world religions, allow school uniforms and food to reflect “religious requirements” and turn the daily act of a worship in schools into “inclusive school assemblies”.

The radical proposals represent a calculated gamble by the union to come up with a policy that will both satisfy growing demands from Muslims and other faith groups for an increased number of religious state schools, and avoid what it regards as the negative impact of educating children from different religions in separate schools.

Steve Sinnott, NUT general secretary, said that the spread of faith schools threatened to undermine community relations. “There will be real benefits to all our communities and youngsters if we could find space within schools for pupils who are Roman Catholics, Anglican, Methodist, Jewish, Sikh and Muslim to have space for more religious instruction in schools,” he said.

He made it clear that he was proposing that schools offer religious instruction in particular faiths, rather than the kind of unbiased teaching about religions found in RE lessons. About 7,000 state schools in England are faith schools – roughly one in three of the total – educating 1.7 million pupils. The majority are either Church of England or Roman Catholic schools – and only a tiny minority cater for other faiths.

The NUT policy document, In Good Faith, suggests that local authorities should take control of state school admissions, and yet they should “neither privilege or discriminate against children on the basis of the beliefs or practices of their parents”.

It was adopted formally by delegates at the NUT’s annual conference in Manchester, although many of the 2,000 members present appeared unaware of its contents. Several were dismayed at the suggestion that religious instruction should be provided in school.

One delegate from the West Midlands said: “Religious instruction should take place in churches or mosques, not in school.” Religious and education leaders gave the proposals a mixed welcome.

Tahir Alam, of the Muslim Council of Britain, welcomed the suggestion that imams should be invited into schools to provide religious instruction and the suggestion that school uniform policies should allow for “religious requirements”. He said that he was dealing with a case of an A-level student who had grown a beard for religious reasons and had been excluded from school for breaching uniform policy.

But John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, questioned the feasibility of monitoring religious instruction delivered by outside preachers. “I would have thought this plan could compound the problem if the people coming into schools were offering extreme views,” he said.

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