THE former Conservative leader of Kent County Council says school admissions policies should be shaped in a way to forge a better ethnic balance in schools.

Lord Bruce-Lockhart, now chairman of the Local Government Association, the lobby group representing all councils, said "pro-active" admissions could play a vital role in tackling segregation in ethnically mixed areas, particularly cities.

He said: "Admissions policy and the definition of catchment areas and feeder schools are key in seeking to re-balance schools with very high percentage of ethnic groups which do not reflect the wider ethnicity of the area."

Although he stopped short of urging a quota system, he cited situations where perhaps 10 to 15 per cent of the population was Muslim or Sikh but "we often find schools are segregated out so that 90 per cent of some schools will be white and not far away, 90 per cent of another school will be Muslim or Sikh."

One way of addressing that imbalance and improving community relations might be to have proactive admissions policies to achieve "a better ethnic balance" in schools.

He pointed to Northern Ireland as a place where the integration of Protestant and Catholic education had "produced benefits."

However, he stressed that admissions were only one part of the solution, saying that promoting inter-school activities and federating two or three schools together could also achieve a better mix.

A recent report has suggested that ethnic segregation in schools is fully entrenched in areas where the ethnic minority population is aboce the eight per cent national average.