Religious Education is outdated, unpopular and opens the door to proselytising.
There are many more subjects children and young people need to learn.
It's time to replace RE with something more appropriate for 21st century students.
It is important for children and young people to learn about different religions and beliefs. But we don't think our schools need a dedicated subject to do this – especially a subject as out-of-date and as irrelevant as Religious Education (RE).
Surveys consistently show RE is one of the least popular school subjects, an indication of its increasing irrelevance.
58% of British adults think religious studies is unimportant at secondary schools. And a quarter of England's secondary schools do not offer RE.
Unlike any other compulsory subject, RE is determined at a local level in England. In each local authority the agreed syllabus for RE is determined by committees representing the Church of England and other religion and belief groups, as well as the local authority and teacher's groups.
As a result, schools not only face a local lottery regarding what their RE syllabus will contain; they will have to teach a subject under significant control from religious interest groups. These groups are strongly motivated to ensure their religion is represented in an overwhelmingly positive light. The current arrangements mean the subject lacks objectivity.
Many faith schools don't even need to follow the locally agreed syllabus and can instead teach religion from their own exclusive viewpoint.
A new nationally-determined civics and citizenship subject could encompass teaching about religious and nonreligious worldviews and allow students to consider moral and ethical issues. Religion and belief could also be explored in other relevant areas of the curriculum.
In Wales, RE has recently been replaced with Religions, Values and Ethics (RVE). While we welcome this broader and more inclusive subject, problems remain regarding the influence of religious groups and exceptions allowing faith schools to teach confessional RE.
We need a reformed subject to ensure education about religion and belief is broad, balanced and proportionate.
We've created a series of resources – Exploring Secularism – for anyone wishing to explore issues of religion, belief, ethics, and worldviews in schools. The resources aim to provide teachers with the material they need to engage with secularism in an informed way.
As British society considers how to respond to greater religious diversity and growing irreligiosity, it is become increasingly important for children and young people to develop their understanding of the interaction between religion, society, and politics. The study of secularism explores this interaction, together with questions about how we balance freedom of, and from, religion with other rights.
Take action!
1. Write to your MP
Support our campaign to ensure every pupil has the same entitlement to high quality, non-partisan education about religious and non-religious worldviews.
2. Share your story
Tell us why you support this campaign, and how you are personally affected by the issue. You can also let us know if you would like assistance with a particular issue.
3. Join us
Become a member of the National Secular Society today! Together, we can separate religion and state for greater freedom and fairness.
Latest updates
Education secretary dismisses commission's call for RE reform
Posted: Mon, 17 Dec 2018 13:58
The education secretary has dismissed calls for the reform of religious education in England after a major report called for a national entitlement to 'Religion and Worldviews' education.
In a letter to the Religious Education Council of England and Wales, Damian Hinds said he had concluded that "now is not the time to begin these reforms".
In a report published in September the Commission on Religious Education (CoRE) said schools' programmes of study on religion and belief should "reflect the complex, diverse and plural nature of worldviews". It added that they could "draw from a range of religious, philosophical, spiritual and other approaches to life".
The commission said all publicly-funded schools should be required to teach the national entitlement. Many of the recommendations were broadly in line with the aims of the National Secular Society's 21st Century RE For All campaign.
The RE Council established CoRE in 2016 in order to review the education, legal and policy frameworks for RE.
Hinds said "some stakeholders" had expressed "concerns that making statutory the inclusion of 'worldviews' risks diluting the teaching of RE". He also cited concerns over teachers' workload, saying reducing workload was "one of my top priorities, for the duration of this parliament".
NSS education and schools officer Alastair Lichten said Hinds's response was "a missed opportunity".
"The commission's recommendations provided a way forward for a subject that has over time become unfit for purpose. Unfortunately, the government has shown it is willing to reject even modest and very widely supported proposals when faced with opposition from religious groups including the Catholic Education Service.
"The commission's recommendations would have allowed many faith schools to continue to teach and inspect denominational RE, but for some any elevation of non-religious worldviews towards equal status is a step too far.
"Britons' worldviews are becoming increasingly diverse and irreligious. Understanding the beliefs of our friends, neighbours and colleagues is crucial to living together in a shared society. Good religious education – whether as a separate subject or as part of a wider humanities curriculum – can help foster that understanding. Sadly efforts to reform RE are being undermined by religious groups seeking to use it for their own ends."
The report was the subject of a debate in the House of Lords on Monday. On behalf of the government Theodore Agnew said it would be "difficult to agree a consensus" on reform owing to objections from some religious groups. Agnew cited the opposition of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Catholic Education Service, groups which he said were "unlikely to be alone".
But peers including John Alderdice and Dominic Hubbard of the Liberal Democrats and Joan Bakewell and Mike Watson of Labour criticised the government's decision.
Alderdice called the report "a thoughtful piece of work" and "arguably the most substantial piece of work on the issue of religious education in our country since the 1970s".
Bakewell called the report "splendid" and the government's response "feeble". Watson said the "inclusion of a diverse range of world views" would make RE "better equipped to remain relevant to young people growing up in 21st-century Britain, both those with religion and those without".
Meanwhile the RE Council, which established CoRE in 2016, said it was "disappointed" by Hinds's reaction.
"His response fails to grasp the urgent need for reform of Religious Education to better prepare young people for life in modern Britain, the broad consensus in support of the commission's recommendations, and the excellent opportunity to strengthen the subject that the report's publication represents."
The council also said its report had "widespread support from teachers", citing the positions of three teaching unions.
The National Association of Teachers of Religious Education called the government's response a "missed chance to make a lasting impact on the quality of education provided in our schools".
In his letter Hinds also said it was "important to continue to work hard to recruit new RE teachers and to ensure that they acquire good subject knowledge". The Department for Education recently changed the bursary available to trainee RE teachers so those with a 2:2 degree or higher will be given £9,000.
Image: Damian Hinds, © Chris McAndrew / UK Parliament [CC BY 3.0]
Framing religion as intrinsically positive harms education, study warns
Posted: Wed, 5 Dec 2018 10:49
"Well-intentioned" religious education teachers are undermining the subject by framing religion as intrinsically positive and glossing over its negative side, academics have warned.
In an article in the journal Religions David Smith, Graeme Nixon and Jo Pearce warned that knowledge was being distorted as teachers attempted to use RE primarily to combat prejudice.
A survey of 465 RE teachers found that 60% "absolutely agree" that "religion should be taught in a positive way in RE". Six per cent did not agree, with the remainder "moderately" (16%), "somewhat" (13%) or "slightly" (five per cent) agreeing.
The authors said some teachers were framing positive manifestations as "true" religion and negative manifestations as "false" or "distorted", meaning respect could be given "prominence over understanding".
There were significant variations between RE teachers who identify as theists and others – who were about equally balanced - between those who taught religion as inherently positive and those who did not.
When invited to give further detail, the teachers frequently stressed the importance of presenting positive manifestations of religion as more authentic, in order to "counteract prejudices".
One teacher said: "We teach general tolerance to all people, of all religions and that all religions teach peace, love and compassion, with the odd exception where there may be extremists who misinterpret their holy books, but that they exist within all religions and that they are not true followers."
Another teacher warned: "It seems that most RE teachers and resources tend to pick the nice bits and shy away from some controversies, especially in primary schools and faith schools. Children are guided towards a biased understanding of religion."
When the authors codified these qualitative responses, they found 35% of teachers advocated teaching both a positive and negative view of religion. Twenty-two per cent advocated a purely positive view; 19% a critical one; 15% an objective one; and nine per cent an essentialised one.
But even where respondents stressed the importance of critical accounts, their written responses often framed this as a critical examination of the positives of 'real' religion and the negatives of 'distorted' religion.
The authors said framing religion as intrinsically good or bad undermines religious literacy in both education and public dialogue.
"Both negative and positive essentialist conceptualisations of religion exist. In light of the strand of cultural discourse outlined above, our concern is with the latter.
"In seeking to essentialise religion and to proscribe it with a set of positive, pro-social, attributes, the self-understanding of some religious adherents is unjustifiably discounted — and religion is sanitised by being cleansed of any negative, anti-social, connotations."
The authors also warned of the risks of prioritising respect over understanding.
"If RE is principally conceptualised instrumentally as combating prejudice and fostering community cohesion, rather than as the pursuit of knowledge and understanding of religion, there is a risk that knowledge is selected to serve instrumental goals and is thereby distorted."
The authors recommended that RE teachers should "avoid giving narrative privilege to any particular denominations/sect/spokesperson". They added that teachers should consider avoiding "expressions, such as 'Hindus believe…' in favour of 'while some Hindus believe, others…' or 'the majority of Hindus believe… while a minority believe…'".
National Secular Society education and schools officer Alastair Lichten welcomed the report.
"These findings bring to light an often overlooked and unintended consequence of well-meaning efforts to promote balance and tolerance in religious education. Most of the RE community pay lip service to teaching the good and the bad and we often hear passionately about teaching the 'warts and all' of religion. However, while RE has (outside of faith schools) largely moved on from confessionalism, it is still treated by many as a rose-tinted advertising space for approved representatives of different beliefs.
"Over recent decades western societies have grappled with the twin phenomena of violence perpetrated by religious groups, and bigotry targeted against religious groups. The highest profile of these in Europe have been Islamist violence and anti-Muslim bigotry. Not wishing to legitimise such forces, RE teachers have been pressured to follow the lead of politicians who frame this violence as a 'distortion' of, or 'nothing to do with' religion. This leaves judges, politicians and commentators straying into the wilds of amateur theology and leaves teachers imposing taboos.
"The demagogue motivated by their faith to spew hatred and bigotry has just as much right to view their interpretation of religion as correct as the humanitarian motivated by that same faith to spread love and tolerance.
"To label one manifestation as the 'real' religion or 'correct' interpretation patronises students and leaves them with an impoverished understanding of the relationships between belief, identity and action. Education can and should tackle prejudice but whitewashing religion can stoke misunderstanding, resentment, bigotry and prejudice."
The NSS campaigns for children to have a national entitlement to high quality, non-partisan education which covers the diversity of religious and non-religious worldviews in a critically-informed way.
See also: How RE teachers see religion – and why it can be bad for pupils, by the authors
