Teachers have voted that no more faith schoools should be set up, claiming that they cause social conflict.

The National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers agreed that it was an “inappropriate use of taxpayers’ money” to fund faith schools that, by their nature, had “exclusive and discriminatory philosophies”. But, in a heated debate at the union’s conference in Belfast, they stopped short of a previous commitment to an entirely secular system.

“Segregation by faith,” Brian Williams, of Cardiff, said, “poses social risk, misunderstanding and potential for conflict”. Surveys suggested that most parents thought faith schools should be abolished, he said.

Colin Collis, of Norfolk, said that faith schools discriminated against teachers who were not religious: senior posts were being reserved for believers.

Other delegates questioned why Jedi Knights— mentioned as a religion in the 2001 census — and Scientologists were not funded to start faith schools.

But Katie Rowley, from a Catholic school in Wakefield, defended faith schools. Her own had pupils of all races and religions and promoted human rights and social cohesion, she said. At the last school she taught in, a secular school in a former pit village, pupils called the nearby town “Pakiville”.

Delegates backed a motion calling for no new faith schools and urged the union’s executive to look into the implications of a totally secular system.

The Department for Education said: “Faith schools integrate fully into the state sector. They make an important contribution to community cohesion by promoting inclusion.”

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