The British Secretary for Education recently praised Catholic schools on the occasion of the 175th anniversary of the founding of the Catholic Education Service, a body of the English and Welsh bishops that supports Catholic schools.

Nadhim Zahawi, a Conservative MP, spoke at a meeting with Catholic educators at Parliament recently.

“175 years is a significant achievement, so I just want to thank everyone in the room, and of course colleagues here who are so supportive of this extraordinary human endeavour and recognise the incredible valuable work that you do and have done and continue to on behalf of so many young people and staff in school across our country,” Zahawi said.

“You deserve high praise, since many of your schools serve some of our most diverse and disadvantaged communities where the challenges include reaching out to those families where neither parent may be in work or those for whom English is a second language – as it was for this Secretary of State.”

Zahawi concluded by saying he is “proud to call [the Church] my partner”.

Most Catholic schools in England receive government funding, with the Church covering about 10% of costs and the state providing the rest. CES says this arrangement saves taxpayers “tens of millions of pounds a year.”