- Students, RE experts, and leaders
of faith and belief organisations meet in London to celebrate the
subject and discuss its future amid teacher recruitment
challenge.
Dame Rachel de Souza, Children’s Commissioner for England, has
spoken of the ‘safe space’ offered by good RE teaching in
schools, remarking that it is “the one place in the curriculum”
where young people can discuss “important and exciting
philosophical, religious and moral conundrums in safe spaces”.
Attendees at an event marking the 50th anniversary of the
formation of the Religious Education Council of England and Wales
heard from students, teachers and faith and belief leaders who
spoke of the academic skills and knowledge the subject provides
young people in helping them to take their place in modern
Britain.
Religious education continues to be a popular subject in schools.
Over the last five years entries to Religious Studies GCSE have
stood around an average of 250,000 with entries to the full
course GCSE rising by 30% over the last decade.
Despite its popularity, many schools offer little or no RE
provision. A recent data review by the National Association of
Teachers of RE found that around 500 secondary schools in year 11
offer no RE provision. There is also a problem with specialism in
schools, with a recent parliamentary question revealing that half
of secondary RE teachers spend most of their timetable delivering
another subject.
Dame Rachel de Souza said: “Children have told me that they want
school to be the place where they can learn about life skills,
relationships and how to set themselves up for the future. The RE
curriculum is one place that children can learn these important
things.
It provides children with a chance to understand more about the
world, other cultures and religions, and also about themselves.
RE helps us understand the different faiths and communities which
make up modern Britain and crucially, RE is a place where these
young people can discuss important and exciting philosophical,
religious and moral conundrums in safe spaces.”
REC Chair Sarah Lane Cawte, said, “The world has changed
significantly in the fifty years since the REC was founded and RE
has continually evolved to serve the needs of our society. We
must continue to change, working towards the vision of the
Commission on RE, with an approach that recognises the complexity
of religious and non-religious worldviews in the twenty-first
century.
“This change starts by those in government and schools
recognising the value of subject in preparing young people for a
rich, diverse, multicultural society and global workplace.”
In October, a Westminster Hall Debate saw MPs and Peers from
across the House agree on the RE’s importance for life in modern
Britain as well as express concern around a lack of government
support for the subject. Last March, the Father of the House,
hosted a roundtable on the future of the
subject.
He said: “We must support our RE teachers in delivering a modern,
relevant RE curriculum. High quality religious education builds
cohesion in our societies and helps prepare young people for the
world beyond Britain too. We need a national plan for religious
education to curb the present teacher recruitment crisis and
ensure this high quality provision reaches every young person in
every school.”
An RE teacher recruitment campaign, Beyond the Ordinary, is
currently underway to attract the next generation of RE teachers.
It has called for applicants from a variety of backgrounds,
stressing the ability of the subject to help young people answer
the big questions in life.
