Religious education in schools

An opportunity missed - the QCA National Framework for Religious education.

The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) has issued a consultation document entitled A national framework for religious education (RE). The proposed syllabus makes no attempt to put religion in a wider historical, philosophical and moral context.

On 20th January 2004, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), with the support of the British Humanist Association, held a seminar entitled What is RE for? Getting the National Framework Right. It was hoped that this discussion would contribute to the debate as the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) formulated the first ever National Framework for RE (see also Atheism & RE in this forum). The first two conclusions of the IPPR report were that

1. RE should not focus narrowly on religions but should a) widen its scope to include non-religious belief systems including atheism, agnosticism and humanism b) encourage the study of free standing philosophical and ethical problems.
2. The heading Religious Education should be dropped in favour of something like Religious, philosophical and moral education as it has been in Scotland.

The QCA documents ignores this valuable input from the IPPR. The title Religious Education remains and the syllabus is narrowly religious, very much from the point of view of a committed Christian. The opportunity to place religious studies in a wider context has been missed.

Religious belief is significant in our culture both historically and at the present time, so that it deserves study. However a broad approach is needed to provide a true perspective which includes both negative and positive aspects. Many of the topics included in the syllabus proposed by the QCA are not uniquely religious (e.g. moral social and cultural development, citizenship, health education, ethical scientific issues). A general philosophical viewpoint, independent of religious belief, is necessary to make these ideas accessible to the whole population. Discussion of moral issues predates current major religions, and now that many people (perhaps a majority) have no religious belief, morality must be based on a wider philosophy.

The IPPR report outlined a new approach to religious education which would have been meaningful to followers of many religious traditions and to the non-religious alike. The QCA have chosen to disregard this work and have produced a narrow, inward-looking religious syllabus.

Gordon Peckham, Exeter.