Changes to religious education recommended

Religious education in England and Wales should be brought into the national curriculum, a review has recommended. It also says the age limit for compulsory RE should be dropped to 16 rather than 18.

While report authors acknowledge the importance of Christianity in British culture, they say: “RE can be controversial and contentious” and should be moved to the national curriculum.

It states: “Understanding the tenets of Christianity … unlocks a wider understanding of British culture in terms of Christianity’s historic influence and how it has shaped modern-day Britain” and it “continues to be vital”. But it noted that some respondents to the review thought the RE curriculum should take a broader approach to better reflect multicultural UK.

The RE syllabus is currently determined at local level, and bringing it into the national curriculum could mean local churches have no input into RE.

John Denning, head of education at the Christian Institute, said: “This approach risks turning RE into a content-free exploration of individual perspectives, at the expense of learning anything of substance about religious beliefs, let alone studying the Bible. Human perspectives, rather than God, become the subject of study. This would only lead to more pupils leaving school religiously illiterate.”