(Non-Afl): My Lords, I feel
obliged to make a few comments on the question of what is and
what is not religious education.
On Amendment 30 and the discussion of other religions, is the
teaching of Judaism regarded as religious education or civics? I
declare an interest as on the register as a trustee of a
multi-academy trust. A major piece of work is already under way
looking at how contemporary Jewish life could, in a very minimal
but important way, be put into the curriculum of every school,
and how contemporary anti-semitism could be
more than touched on and built into teaching in a timewise,
modest way. That could be defined as a discussion of Judaism and
classified as religious education.
From my perspective, in a sense, that does not matter. What
matters is that somewhere within all secondary schools in the
country, pupils get a glimpse of another community and its life,
our history with the Jewish community—which has not been the
proudest over the past 1,000 years—and some feeling and
understanding of what it is like to be Jewish in this
country.
I do not have a specific view on whether the amendment would work
or not. The spirit of it is very interesting and useful. There is
a challenge there and the more debate and discussion we have on
the challenge of how other faiths, communities or both are fed
into the school curriculum in this small but important way is
vital to faith communities, education and the country.
(LD): My Lords, I ought to
declare an interest as a former head teacher of a Church of
England school. We live in a multicultural, multifaith community,
and we make that successful by respecting each and every one of
us. I shall come back to that in a moment.
We on these Benches support Amendment 30. I agree with the noble
Baroness, Lady Meacher, that you do not have to be a Christian to
believe in Christian values, but the values of other faiths are
also important. For example, my daughter went to a Jewish school,
where she learned many values which were not, initially, her
understanding. Because that Jewish school admitted children from
different faiths, at 28 she still has lifelong friends from a
whole range of different faiths: Muslim, Jewish, Christian and
Hindu. She seems to constantly go to Hindu weddings for some
reason.
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