Religious Education is outdated, unpopular and opens the door to proselytising.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 But we don't think our schools need a dedicated subject to do this – especially a subject as out-of-date and as irrelevant as Religious Education (RE).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
Former education secretary renews call for reform of religion in schools
Posted: Tue, 17 Jul 2018 17:05
Religious education should be replaced with a new national 'Religion, Belief and Values' subject, a former education secretary has recommended.
The call to reform RE is one of a number of recommendations from a new report from Charles Clarke (education secretary 2002-04) and Linda Woodhead (professor of sociology of religion at Lancaster University) – A New Settlement Revised: Religion and Belief in Schools – a follow up to their 2015 report.
The National Secular Society has broadly welcomed the proposals to reform RE but branded other aspect of the report a "disappointing surrender to vested interests".
The suggested reforms to RE are broadly in line with the National Secular Society's call for legislative change to replace current laws surrounding RE with a new national entitlement for religion and belief learning.
The report recommends that a new syllabus and curriculum for Religion, Belief and Values (RBV) should be determined by a national 'Advisory Council on Religion, Beliefs and Values' (ACRBV), appointed by the secretary of state.
The body would represent "a balance between different faiths and beliefs", but with members "selected for their relevant expertise, and not in order to represent any particular faith or belief".
The report reiterates the widely held view that the current arrangements for RE – where it is devised by SACRES/ASC (Standing Advisory Councils on Religious Education/Agreed Syllabus Conferences) – are not fit for purpose.
The authors however backtrack on previous recommendations that seemed to suggest any instructional/confessional RE should be separated from the academic subject. The latest report states: "of course all schools would be entitled to offer a wider syllabus, and more study, inside or outside school hours." The report does however reiterate calls for Ofsted to inspect religion and belief education, community cohesion and assemblies in all schools.
The report recommends that the right to withdraw from RBV should end following reform.
The report supports the continued existence of faith schools, recommending that "Children of families of faith should where possible be able to attend schools of that faith, and that their current legal right to be given priority in the admissions process should not be removed".
The authors are clear, however, that moves to phase out religious selection are "highly beneficial" and call on churches and other faith bodies to make "strong and continues progress in reducing the numbers of their schools where faith is a criterion for admission".
Arrangements which enable faith schools to discriminate in their employment should be kept "under review, the report says.
On collective worship, the report appears to backtrack on the authors' 2015 recommendation that the legal duty on schools to hold an act of daily (usually Christian collective worship) be repealed. The report cites "important elements of Church of England opinion" as the reason behind their change of mind, along with a concern that abolishing the statutory requirement for collective worship will undermine assemblies.
Responding to the report, NSS education and schools officer, Alastair Lichten, said:
"Some of the proposals represent baby steps in the right direction, but the report overall appears to be an admission that much needed reforms are not possible without the approval of religious bodies. That is a worrying state of affairs for a modern education system – and again highlights the urgent need to separate religion and state in all areas – particularly education.
"Much of the positives in the report come across as watered down versions of proposals already widely supported in the educational community. The backsliding from the previous report highlights how the privileged position of organised religion in state education is leading to an expedient acceptance of standards that are lower than is desirable."
The National Secular society is campaigning for:
An inclusive and secular education system, with an end to state funded faith schools.
Schools to be brought under the Equality Act to end to religious discrimination against pupils in admissions and against teachers in employment, unless an occupational requirement can be demonstrated.
All pupils to have the same national entitlement to high quality, non-partisan education about religion and belief.
Abolition of the law that requires schools to hold acts of worship. We would instead like to see a duty on schools to ensure that all aspects of its curriculum, including assemblies, are respectful and inclusive of all pupils, regardless of their religion or belief, including non-belief.
Mixed-sex schools shouldn’t segregate children, says DfE
Posted: Thu, 28 Jun 2018 14:57
Mixed-sex schools in England should not generally separate pupils by sex or faith, the government has said.
In new non-statutory guidance, the Department for Education (DfE) has advised schools not to segregate children by characteristics protected under the Equality Act 2010, which include faith, sex and race.
The guidance comes in the wake of a landmark ruling in the Court of Appeal last year that an Islamic school's policy of segregating boys from girls amounted to unlawful sex discrimination. Al-Hijrah school in Birmingham segregated boys and girls from year five upwards for religious reasons for all lessons, break and lunchtimes, school trips and school clubs.
The guidance says separating pupils in a way that "denies them the choice or opportunity to interact socially, or to interact in an educational setting, with pupils of the other sex" is likely to be unlawful.
When pupils are separated school leaders and governors will be expected to justify their policy to Ofsted and other inspectors, parents and the wider community.
The guidance says schools may take proportionate action when they reasonably think girls or boys suffer a disadvantage related to their sex, have different needs or participate disproportionately little in an activity.
It adds that schools should check there are no practices that could result in less favourable treatment of a boy or a girl because of his or her sex.
Schools will be allowed to use single-sex sports teams on the basis of physical disadvantage, provided there are comparable sporting activities on offer for the other sex. They remain obliged to provide separate toilet and washing facilities for boys and girls aged eight and over. Existing statutory exceptions also allow schools to provide separate boarding accommodation.
Alastair Lichten, the National Secular Society's education and schools officer, said the guidance was "mostly just common sense interpretation of existing equalities legislation".
"There may be some limited circumstances in which gender segregation is justified but it is reasonable to ask schools to justify it. For some schools – particularly faith schools – gender segregation is a way of preparing boys and girls for different roles and advancing unhealthy attitudes towards girls and women. Where that happens it is unacceptable, so we're pleased to see the DfE making this clear.
"But it's disappointing that the guidance doesn't explicitly address RE. Gender segregated RE implies that students are being prepared for religious roles, rather than being educated about religion and beliefs."
In 2017 the NSS wrote to the DfE after its research found a number of state-funded Jewish schools where pupils receive different religious education lessons according to their gender.
At the time of the Al-Hijrah ruling around 20 mixed-sex Christian, Jewish or Islamic faith schools in the UK practised gender segregation. Shortly afterwards Hasmonean High School, a secondary high school for pupils from orthodox Jewish families, announced its intention to split into two schools to evade the implications of the ruling.
