Religious Education is outdated, unpopular and opens the door to proselytising.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 But we don't think our schools need a dedicated subject to do this – especially a subject as out-of-date and as irrelevant as Religious Education (RE).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
Replace RE with new national entitlement, says NSS
Posted: Mon, 4 Dec 2017 10:09
The National Secular Society has called for a new national entitlement for religion and belief education in England to ensure all pupils learn about a diversity of religious and non-religious worldviews.
The NSS also called for an end to local determination of religious education and stressed the need to "liberate" the subject area from vested interests.
Its call came in response to a consultation held by the Commission on Religious Education (CoRE) on its interim report on Religious Education For All. The Commission has been established by the Religious Education Council of England and Wales (REC) to review the legal, education, and policy frameworks for RE.
The interim report stresses that RE in England faces "a perilous future" unless it is subject to "strategic, urgent intervention". The report suggested a new national entitlement for RE and said the subject should cover non-religious worldviews as well as religious ones. "RE in schools should enable students to engage in an intelligent and informed way with the ideas, practices and contemporary manifestations of a diversity of religious and non-religious worldviews," it says.
The call for evidence gave the opportunity for individuals and organisations to give their views on the future direction of RE.
The NSS, which is advocating reform of religion and belief education through its '21st Century RE For All' campaign, is broadly supportive of many of the report's recommendations. In its response to the consultation, the Society welcomed CoRE's proposal to replace current laws with a national entitlement for religion and belief learning.
The NSS argues that a new national entitlement would end the current 'postcode lottery' resulting from locally-determined RE syllabuses with privileged control by religious organisations. If applied to faith schools, it would also ensure that such schools take a more broad and balanced approach to the teaching of religion and belief.
The NSS said the requirement that agreed syllabuses must 'reflect the fact that religious traditions in Britain are in the main Christian' should be scrapped. It also suggested that rather than focusing on an in-depth study of specific religions, the entitlement should take a wider view on the concepts of religion and belief, and examine them from a variety of viewpoints.
The consultation additionally sought views on the future of Standing Advisory Councils for Religious Education (SACREs), which provide advice on the local education authority's agreed syllabus for RE. The NSS advised that SACREs be abolished, because a national entitlement would negate the reason for their existence.
"SACREs are not suitable bodies for the task of advising on, delivering or supporting a national entitlement for objective, critical and pluralistic religion and belief education," the NSS said in its response. "A major motivation of those joining SACREs has been to represent their faith or belief tradition in the most positive light. This is educationally inappropriate. Such groups should not be permitted to undermine the secular ethos of the national entitlement."
The NSS stressed that the construction and content of any programmes of study covering religion and belief should be determined by the same process as other subjects – by senior educationalists, subject specialists and teachers, and not by religious groups. Similarly, the responsibility of setting up RE networks should be given to RE teachers and relevant education professionals, and not SACREs or religious groups with a vested interest in promoting their faith.
It strongly warned the Commission against its own suggestion of "leaving the market open for schools, groups of schools, dioceses, commercial providers and other relevant groups to write their own programmes of study", which the NSS said would risk undermining the whole endeavour of a national entitlement and would result in continuing inequality in provision and quality of religion and belief education.
The NSS cited the Church of England's Understanding Christianity project as an example of how religious groups could produce confessionally-orientated school resources for RE if they were afforded the right to create programmes of study for schools.
On the subject of inspectors for RE, the NSS said that Ofsted, and not religious authorities, should be responsible for inspections in all schools, regardless of their faith ethos. It also said that no RE teachers in training should leave training thinking it is ever appropriate for them to teach or promote their own religious beliefs in the classroom.
The interim report discussed ending the right that parents currently have to withdraw their pupils from RE. The NSS responded that provided RE is delivered in an objective, critical and pluralistic manner, the right of withdrawal could be repealed. However, it went on to add that with RE in its current state, the right of withdrawal is necessary to protect freedom of belief due to the prevalence of schools and external evangelical groups using RE as a platform to proselytise.
Finally, the NSS questioned the assumption that RE should remain a distinct subject. "The interim report appears to accept the status quo uncritically by asserting that 'RE remains a vital academic subject for education in the 21st century' but fails, in our view, to justify that position," it said.
"Teaching children about a diversity of worldviews, and giving them space to consider moral and ethical issues, is a legitimate educational objective, but there is no reason to assume that we have to have mandatory religious education classes to achieve that."
Should RE be retained as a distinct subject, the Society recommended that the name of the subject be changed to emphasise "philosophy", "ethics", "worldviews", "beliefs" and "values", rather than "religion", in order to reflect its inclusive nature.
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'Life and society' classes to replace religious education in Luxembourg schools
Posted: Wed, 27 Sep 2017 15:24
Luxembourg has abolished religious teaching in schools, as part of the government's plan to separate church and state over a 20 year period.
Religious education in Luxembourg schools will be replaced with new 'life and society' classes. In a July statement, the Education Ministry said the new classes will ensure schools become "a place of dialogue, where coexistence is built and one learns respect for others".
Until now Luxembourg schools have provided religious instruction in preparation for Catholic ceremonies such as first communion. The schools will no longer provide these classes, but parents who do wish their children to be taught about Catholicism will be able to bring their children to parish centres after school.
National Secular Society campaigns director Stephen Evans welcomed the plan.
"Religious education as a concept has passed its sell-by date. Teaching children about a diversity of worldviews, and giving them space to consider moral and ethical issues, is a laudable aim but there is no reason to assume that we have to have religious education classes to achieve that".
The NSS is currently campaigning for a secular education system in the UK, including reforms to current RE provision.
Patric de Rond, the Luxembourg archdiocese's head of religious teaching, expressed dismay. "Now everything will have to be done by parishes, and an additional burden will fall on parents who can no longer count on school help," he said.
Luxembourg's strategy to separate religion from government will also legally require that religious associations observe "equality between men and women." Additionally, a new funding plan agreed in January 2015 severely restricts state funding for the Roman Catholic Church. As a result, the Catholic Church in Luxembourg has reduced its parishes from 274 to 33.
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