EVANGELICAL Christian schools have a worse record at teaching tolerance than Muslim schools, it has emerged.

Inspectors found that 42.5 per cent of independent evangelical Christian schools were failing to help pupils to learn to respect other cultures and promote tolerance and harmony.

Figures published by Ofsted showed that 36 per cent of independent Muslim schools were judged to be failing in this duty, the Times Educational Supplement reported.

There are two evangelical schools in the region - Emmanuel College in Gateshead, and King's Academy in Middlesbrough.

Both are sponsored by Wearside car dealer and evangelical Christian Sir Peter Vardy, through his Emmanuel Schools Foundation, which aims to set up seven similar learning centres in the North.

His involvement has sparked controversy, as pupils are taught the Creationist version of history, which rejects Darwin's theory of evolution and favours the Biblical version of creation found in Genesis.

Chief Inspector of Schools David Bell sparked anger among leading Muslim groups when he warned that Islamic schools could threaten the coherence of British society.

An Ofsted spokeswoman said Mr Bell's remarks were not restricted to Muslim faith schools.

She said: "The number of independent faith schools has grown from 170 in September 2003 to 276 in January 2005.

"There are now more than 100 Muslim schools educating more than 14,000 pupils, so these schools educate by far the largest proportion of children being taught in faith schools.

"Evangelical Christian schools teach 5,000 pupils and Jewish schools cater for 9,500 pupils.

In his speech to the Hansard Society on Monday, Mr Bell said: ''I worry that many young people are being educated in faith-based schools, with little appreciation of wider responsibilities and obligations."