Religious Education is outdated, unpopular and opens the door to proselytising.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 But we don't think our schools need a dedicated subject to do this – especially a subject as out-of-date and as irrelevant as Religious Education (RE).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
Parents set to lose right to withdraw children from RE in Wales
Posted: Tue, 21 Jan 2020 09:02
The Welsh government plans to remove parents' right to withdraw children from lessons on religion, relationships and sexuality and to rename religious education as 'Religion, Values and Ethics'.
In an announcement on Tuesday morning, ministers said children would have "universal access" to the "full curriculum", which is due to become active in 2022.
The Welsh government said it had chosen 'Religion, Values and Ethics' as a name to replace RE as it had proved the most popular during an eight-week consultation on the issue.
It also said the right to withdraw from relationships and sexuality education (RSE) would be removed.
In response the National Secular Society said the changes to RE "must be contingent on substantial reforms" to ensure religion is taught objectively in all schools, including faith schools.
The NSS welcomed the decision to remove the parental right to withdraw from RSE.
Education minister Kirsty Williams said: "Our responsibility as a government is to ensure that young people, through public education, have access to learning that supports them to discuss and understand their rights and the rights of others.
"It is essential that all young people are provided with access to information that keeps them safe from harm."
She added that the decision would need "careful and sensitive implementation".
NSS chief executive Stephen Evans said: "Religious education is a highly contentious area of the curriculum. Removing the parental right of withdrawal must be contingent on substantial reforms to ensure the subject area is genuinely objective, critical and pluralistic.
"Faith schools still being permitted to teach the subject in accordance with their faith ethos will fail this test, rendering the Welsh policy incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.
"The decision to remove the right to withdraw from relationships and sexuality education is welcome and sensible. This will safeguard children's right to access information which is crucial both to their own wellbeing and that of others."
Mr Evans is due to meet the minister next week to discuss the potential implications of the changes.
Relevant NSS campaigning
- The NSS has engaged with the Welsh government throughout the process of drawing up the new curriculum.
- In response to the recent consultation the NSS urged ministers not to remove the parental right to withdraw children from RE until the subject was fully reformed to make it objective, critical and pluralistic.
- The NSS argues that all children should be entitled to an impartial religion and belief curriculum.
New curriculum in Wales
- Last year the Welsh government's published plans for the new curriculum included an explicit reference to pupils learning about "non-religious worldviews" for the first time and moved RE into a wider area of Humanities study.
- The NSS expressed broad support for these changes but warned the curriculum would allow faith schools to continue to use RE to promote their worldview and to distort RSE.
Don’t remove right to withdraw from RE, NSS urges Welsh ministers
Posted: Fri, 29 Nov 2019 10:59
The National Secular Society has urged the Welsh government not to remove parents' right to withdraw children from religious education until the subject is fully reformed.
Education ministers in Wales are considering removing the right of withdrawal as part of a proposed new curriculum, which also proposes to rename RE as 'Religion and Worldviews' (RW).
In response to a consultation over the curriculum, the NSS said:
- It had "no objection in principle" to removing the right to withdraw from a fully reformed study of religion, but its support was contingent on "institutional and cultural change".
- The study of worldviews should be "genuinely objective, critical and pluralistic".
- The right to withdraw particularly helped to protect parental freedom and children's independent rights when faith schools teach RE in a way that aligns with their religious ethos.
The NSS also called for all pupils to have an entitlement to receive "a broad and balanced education about different worldviews".
The society said there were circumstances in which the right to withdraw would "undermine children's rights to access education and to gain understanding of and respect for those with different worldviews".
But it noted that religious groups' historical and continuing influence over the way religion is taught meant there would be "significant human rights implications" to removing the long standing right.
NSS head of education Alastair Lichten said: "In principle there should be no right to withdraw from any subject.
"But RE in Wales has historically been taught in a way which promotes religion. The right to withdraw has been a crucial safeguard against this for families with reasonable objections. And reforms to the subject don't go far enough to justify ending this safeguard."
The NSS also said the subject should be renamed as 'Worldviews' rather than 'Religion and Worldviews', which still treated religion as "the default" and non-religious worldviews as "an addition or afterthought".
NSS backs end to right to withdraw from RSE
Within the consultation the NSS also expressed support for plans to end the right to withdraw from a new subject of relationships and sexuality education (RSE).
And the society challenged the Welsh government's conflation of the right to withdraw from RW with the right to withdraw from RSE, arguing that the two measures had different implications.
Mr Lichten said: "Lessons about relationships and sexuality promote children's health and wellbeing and the harm caused by withdrawing children from them is potentially significant, both for themselves and for others.
"It is possible that through RSE children are exposed to information and ideas which conflict with their parents' religious convictions. However, this is balanced against the child's right and significant interest in receiving a full education."
RE Council's response
- The chief executive of the RE Council, Rudolf Elliot Lockhart, said it would be "necessary to ensure that the subject and its delivery will be objective, critical, and pluralistic in all settings" before removing the right to withdraw from RW.
- The RE Council also described the conflation of the right to withdraw from RW and the right to withdraw from RSE as "regrettable" on similar grounds to the NSS.
- The RE Council represents the views of a variety of parties with a significant interest in religious education in England and Wales.
Read more: This isn't the time to end the right to withdraw from RE in Wales, by Alastair Lichten
Image via Needpix.com.
