Thanet suffers from severe deprivation, mainly driven by socio-economic factors. Efforts to remediate this through economic regeneration plans have largely been unsuccessful, while a combination of selective and denominational education creates and maintains a gradient of disadvantage that mainly impacts upon already-deprived young people. Some of the problems associated with religious belief, practices and education are discussed, and social statistics are adduced to show that, in Thanet, selection in education, whether by producer power, ability or denominational criteria, relegate the most disadvantaged pupils to the least favoured schools. Efforts to promote community cohesion have been made by some faith groups, but the District's significant problems remain. A Marxist analysis indicates the steps that are required to eliminate the social injustices currently perpetuated by the existing regimes and interests in the District. (Contains 4 tables.)