Neglecting RE leaves a hole in curriculum, warns MP
RELIGIOUS education lessons must not be “neglected” by schools because they can help teenagers prepare to deal with grief, the Father of the House of Commons has said.
Sir Peter Bottomley said that faith, religion and tradition are “comforts at times of joy and at times of grief ”, and that “every young person needs to understand religion”.
He made the comments after a study found that about 34 per cent of academies in England have no timetabled RE lessons and nearly 500 secondary schools have zero hours of RE provision in Year 11.
While the researchers found that the number of students taking religious studies at GCSE had risen by nearly a third over the past decade, they said that no government money had been spent on the subject in the past five years.
A team from the Religious Education Council of England and Wales, the National Association of Teachers of Religious Education (Natre) and RE Today found that the subject is being “neglected by the Government” and “marginalised by some schools, particularly in the academy system”.
Sir Peter, who is the MP for Worthing West, called for a national plan for the subject. He said: “Too many young people are not getting a fair deal when it comes to religious education.
“In neglecting the subject, we leave a gaping hole in our school curriculum.
“At its best, RE prepares young people for the ethical, moral and religious debates that influence life in modern Britain and the wider world.”
Sir Peter said that religion had helped a community deal with grief after six teenagers lost their lives in a car accident in Eltham, South London, in 1995 –
‘Too many young people are not getting a fair deal when it comes to religious education’
where at the time he was their MP. “The first thing that all their fellow pupils did was to congregate at a church, even though half of them didn’t know which way up to hold a hymn book,” he said.
“I think that it was helpful for them to be able to find a church and find refuge, but it could have been more helpful if they were more familiar with the functioning of a church.”
Deborah Weston, a Natre research officer, said: “It is a great shame that RE is being neglected by the Government, and marginalised by some schools, particularly in the academy system.”