Government rules allowing faith schools to refuse to have homosexual teachers on their staff are to be challenged in court by the largest classroom union, it said today.

The National Union of Teachers said it was to seek a judicial review of the regulations, which implement an EU directive, as it believed they broke both European law and the 1998 Human Rights Act.

NUT general secretary Doug McAvoy said a teacherís sexual orientation was irrelevant to his or her ability to do the job.

The EU directive said an employer could discriminate on the grounds of sexuality or religious belief if it was a ìgenuine and determining occupational requirement, provided that the objective is legitimate and the requirement is proportionateî.

But Mr McAvoy declared: ìWe cannot accept that committed teachers should be discriminated against because of their sexual orientation.

"Their sexual orientation has nothing to do with their capacity to teach or the performance of their duties.î