Religious Education is outdated, unpopular and opens the door to proselytising.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 But we don't think our schools need a dedicated subject to do this – especially a subject as out-of-date and as irrelevant as Religious Education (RE).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
High Court rules against Education Secretary for leaving non-religious views out of new RE GCSE
Posted: Wed, 25 Nov 2015 16:32
The High Court has ruled in favour of three families who challenged the Education Secretary's exclusion of non-religious worldviews from the new RE GCSE syllabus.
The families, supported by the British Humanist Association, successfully took their case to the High Court and accused the Government of taking a "skewed" approach to religious education, with one parent objecting to "the lack of parity between religious beliefs and non-religious worldviews in the school curriculum, which in the eyes of children may well lead to the belief that religion, in whatever form, has a monopoly on truth and on morality."
The National Secular Society has repeatedly called for fundamental reform of the subject, including the inclusion of non-religious perspectives.
When the new GCSE RE curriculum was announced the NSS challenged the Government in a consultation response over the lack of "systematic study of secular ethics or non-religious worldviews" in the proposals.
The case mounted by the three families was pursued under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), and the High Court ruled that Secretary of State for Education, Nicky Morgan, had made an "error of law" by leaving non-religious views out of the GCSE syllabus.
Mr Justice Warby ruled that there had been a "breach of the duty to take care that information or knowledge included in the curriculum is conveyed in a pluralistic manner".
But crucially the judge ruled that "is not of itself unlawful to permit an RS GCSE to be created which is wholly devoted to the study of religion". The ruling added that the assertion that this fulfilled "the entirety of the state's RE duties" was however in breach of the requirement for pluralistic teaching of RE.
The judge concluded that if the GCSE syllabus fell short of meeting the Government's obligation to impartiality then "the state would need to afford some additional educational provision or fail in its duties".
NSS campaigns manager Stephen Evans commented: "The recognition this ruling gives to the non-religious worldviews held by a great number of people in the UK is welcome. For too long the exploration of ethics and fundamental life questions have been undertaken in an almost exclusively religious context, which sidelines a host of other philosophical approaches. We hope this ruling changes that.
"We urged the Government to include the systematic study of non-religious thought and beliefs in the new GCSE syllabus and they declined to do so. The High Court has issued a ruling that the Government was wrong to neglect non-religious beliefs, though it leaves open how the DfE can rectify this."
Mr Evans said the ruling provided another opportunity for the Government rethink its whole approach to the teaching of religion and belief in schools.
"The school curriculum should not be used as an opportunity for special interest groups to propagate their faith and beliefs. It should offer a comprehensive and impartial study of human ideas and philosophy from a broad spectrum of stances – religious and non-religious alike in a new, reformed subject for all pupils."
David Wolfe QC, speaking for the three families who pursued the case, told the hearing that Nicky Morgan had failed to comply with "her duty of neutrality and impartiality as between religious and other beliefs".
According to the Telegraph, lawyers for the DfE had argued that "although some schools rely on the RS GCSE to discharge their duty to provide religious education at key stage 4 for 14 to 16-year-olds, provision has been made for non-religious beliefs to be studied and what is in a school's curriculum is a matter 'for local determination' by individual school authorities."
In response to the judgement the Department for Education said the ruling will not "affect the current teaching of the RS GCSE in classrooms".
A DfE spokesperson said: "Today's judgement does not challenge the content or structure of that new GCSE and the judge has been clear it is in no way unlawful."
Read the High Court ruling in full
Secularists call for citizenship studies to include stronger focus on human rights
Posted: Mon, 24 Nov 2014 10:08
In a response to a Department for Education (DfE) consultation on draft changes to the GCSE citizenship studies subject content, the National Secular Society has called for pupils to be educated about the relationship between equality, human rights and equal citizenship.
The NSS response called for the course to explicitly teach pupils about human rights and child rights, including the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 29 of which requires education to be directed to "the development of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and for the principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations".
Along with significant changes to the course content the subject will become 100% exam assessed from 2016. Responding to fears that the subject could be downgraded the Government has said that citizenship studies will continue to count in school performance tables. The number of students taking citizenship studies reached a peak in 2010, but has since then declined dramatically, with uncertainty over the subject's future blamed by many for the drop.
The Citizenship Foundation, which has been encouraging its supporters to take part in the consultation, expressed concern that the "breadth of content" and its weighting towards specific detailed knowledge could leave students with little time to develop skills and understanding related to active citizenship.
Under the topic of "Democracy and politics" pupils will learn about issues including: government, political institutions, elections and the media in the UK, as well as politics beyond the UK.
In the full course, pupils will be expected to compare citizenship in democratic and nondemocratic states. This was welcomed by the NSS, which also called for it to be included in the short course – and to include a study of the different models of citizenship that underpin secular versus theocratic states.
Citizenship has been part of the national curriculum in secondary schools in England since 2002, with the majority of citizenship studies students taking the short course rather than the full GCSE, although the trend in recent years is away from the short course to the longer course in most schools. In its response, the NSS shared the Citizenship Foundation's concerns that the new short course will not leave enough room for students to develop a full understanding of what active citizenship means for them. The NSS also expressed concern that human rights and equality principles could be squeezed out of the short course.
Stephen Evans, campaigns manager at the National Secular Society, said: "Principles of equality and human rights are the foundation of the equal citizenship; this should be central to young people's education about citizenship.
"There is a real need to ensure that young people develop into citizens who are capable of living together in 21st century Britain. By empowering the next generation of active citizens, and educating them together regardless of their religious or belief backgrounds, we can hopefully to move closer to that ideal of equal citizenship."
