LONDON: British Education Secretary Ruth Kelly came under increasing pressure yesterday to explain how a registered sex offender was allowed to become a teacher, with the opposition Conservatives pressing for her resignation.

Kelly ordered on Wednesday an "exhaustive review" of cases in which registered sex offenders have not been barred from working in schools after she was accused of a lapse of judgement.

Opposition politicians and parents' groups have lambasted Kelly for allowing a registered sex offender to be given a job as a physical education teacher after deciding he did not pose a threat.

Prime Minister Tony Blair's spokesman dismissed the possibility of Kelly resigning but the Conservative education secretary said they needed answers quickly.

"As every day passes, parents' confidence in Ruth Kelly's ability to maintain the integrity of the staff working in schools is ebbing away," David Willetts told BBC radio.

"These were very sensitive decisions that were taken.

"They were taken at a ministerial level and they (the ministers) were consciously deciding that someone who is on the register of sex offenders should nevertheless be permitted to work in schools".

On Wednesday evening, Willetts said Kelly should consider her position.

Kelly, who will take questions in the House of Commons later on Thursday, said there were a "small number of cases" in which people on the Sex Offenders Register had not been included on a list that bars them from working in schools.

"I have therefore decided to commission as a matter of urgency an exhaustive review of all such cases since the introduction of the Sex Offenders Register in 1997," she said in a statement on Wednesday.

She added she accepted "full responsibility" for the decisions taken by her department.

The review will examine the decision-making process in such cases and any immediate policy implications.

The man in question was placed on the register after receiving a police caution for downloading banned images of children on the Internet.

He was later suspended from his job at Hewett School in Norwich on police advice and resigned.

Source: China Daily