Religious Education is outdated, unpopular and opens the door to proselytising.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 But we don't think our schools need a dedicated subject to do this – especially a subject as out-of-date and as irrelevant as Religious Education (RE).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
Row over ‘discriminatory, unproductive’ SACRE members in south Wales
Posted: Thu, 26 Apr 2018 16:38
The National Secular Society has reiterated its call for the abolition of local religious education committees amid complaints about the conduct of a committee's members in south Wales.
This week councillors on Monmouthshire County Council accused some members of the Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education (SACRE) in Monmouthshire of discriminatory attitudes and a lack of productivity.
A meeting of the council's democratic services committee heard that recent SACRE meetings had been so unproductive that the election of a chair had been delayed for months. The SACRE sets the religious education curriculum in the county's schools.
Tony Easson, of Labour, said a meeting in June had seen a great deal of dissent over the chair's appointment, partly because committee members were calling for more Christian faith representation and less for other faiths.
Tudor Thomas, a Labour councillor who sits on the SACRE as a co-opted member, said its "whole ethos and atmosphere had changed". He added that some of those who had complained about the SACRE's conduct after a fractious meeting in October had yet to receive a reply from the council.
Jo Watkins, a Liberal Democrat, said the SACRE had become "argumentative" rather than "productive".
The chair of the NSS's Secular Education Forum, Keith Sharpe, said the episode "highlights once again the error of handing local SACREs the power to determine how religion and belief issues are taught".
"Children's right to an education which opens their minds should not be subject to the whims of faith leaders, appointed to local authority committees, pushing their agendas.
"But this episode doesn't just highlight the arbitrariness of local determination. It also shows that involving non-professional religious believers in the professional business of curriculum design doesn't work. We need fewer people chosen for their beliefs and more people chosen for their professional credentials.
"The government needs to abolish SACREs as part of a comprehensive effort to reform RE. That reform must give children a national entitlement to a broad, balanced curriculum in which they think critically about faith and belief."
The NSS is campaigning for the abolition of SACREs as part of its 21st Century RE for All campaign, which calls for all children to be entitled to an impartial religion and belief curriculum. Earlier this month the society hosted a conference on 21st Century RE for All, where experts called for reform of the way religion and belief are taught in schools.
Image: Monmouthshire County Council logo, via Logopedia, user AxG [CC BY-SA-3.0]
Lords committee: respect the law before “the values of others”
Posted: Thu, 19 Apr 2018 13:26
Public policy must put "respect for the law" before "respect for the values of others" and defend "the shared values of British citizenship", a House of Lords committee has said.
In a report published yesterday, the Lords select committee on citizenship and civic engagement said faith schools should not be exempt from requirements to promote "shared values of British citizenship". It suggested using this phrase to replace the current term 'fundamental British values'.
It also said rules on school admissions should only be changed if doing so does not increase social segregation. This is a blow to government plans to allow more faith-based discrimination in new faith schools.
The committee also backed efforts by education watchdog Ofsted to crack down on schools which promote discriminatory attitudes about sex and relationships.
Several of its recommendations closely resembled the suggestions the National Secular Society made in its submission to the committee (begins on p.1096).
The NSS said a multi-faithist approach to public policy had undermined common citizenship, eroded some common human rights and values and harmed the rights of women and "minorities within minorities".
"Accommodating the vast plethora of identities within Britain requires engagement to be based on equal citizenship, rather than any particular identity frame," the NSS's submission said.
It added that the UK should "develop notions of universal rights and responsibilities that transcend all faith and belief systems" and that "equality and human rights" should be "central to young people's education".
The committee's report was titled The Ties that Bind: Citizenship and Civic Engagement in the 21st Century. Its summary said "the creation of a country in which every one of its citizens feels secure, engaged and fulfilled must be a primary objective of a successful modern democratic nation".
"While a variety of faiths, beliefs and customs can enrich our society, and respect for the values of others is a high priority, respect for the law must come first. There is no place for rules or customs whose effect is to demean or marginalise people or groups – equality before the law is a cornerstone of our society.
"The rule of law, together with a commitment to democracy, individual liberty and respect for the inherent worth and autonomy of all people, are the shared values of British citizenship from which everything else proceeds. These are 'red lines' which have to be defended."
The committee added that these values should "be promoted in their own right rather than simply as an adjunct of counter-extremism policy". It said guidance to teachers should show that the promotion of "shared values of British citizenship" was intended "to encourage positive citizenship rather than solely aiming to counter extremism".
"Shared British values can present a positive vision of what people in Britain believe, and could help prevent the need for counter-extremism intervention," it added.
The committee said faith schools should have "no exception to the requirement to teach shared values of British citizenship, still less the requirement to abide by the rule of law". That recommendation also applied to non-faith schools which are mainly attended by children from a particular faith background.
It also said "any change in the rules governing admissions criteria to faith schools should ensure that they do not increase social segregation". The government is currently considering allowing new faith schools to admit all their pupils on the basis of their parents' faith, a move the NSS is lobbying against.
On Relationships and Sex Education (RSE), the report said it was "entirely right" for education watchdog Ofsted to sanction schools which "fail to teach about LGBT people". It said: "Although religious groups are not bound by anti-discrimination law in the practice of their faith, promoting discrimination has no place in schools."
In February the NSS told the government that young people's access to RSE should not be restricted on religious grounds.
The committee also questioned whether the Department for Education was "sufficiently considering" whether faith schools would "promote shared British values" before they are opened, rather than "relying on Ofsted to inspect these schools further down the line".
And it said the DfE should ensure unregistered schools are "not used by communities as a way of avoiding learning about shared British values".
NSS chief executive Stephen Evans said there was "much to commend in this report".
"The committee has rightly stressed that public policy must not allow religious groups special exemptions to the laws and policies that affect the rest of us. It has also made the case for a positive vision of British society which tolerates difference while upholding the rule of law for all.
"Its recommendations on schools are also generally welcome. The government should pay particular attention to what this report says on faith-based admissions and sex education.
"But ultimately the government will need to go further than this committee is recommending. Promoting a free and fair society for all citizens relies on the rollback of religious influence in our public life – particularly in the education systems of the UK's constituent parts."
