from Religion Media Centre
An opinion piece in RE Online says that the government’s decision to cut the £10,000 bursary and training support for trainee Religious Education teachers, threatens more than recruitment numbers — it will profoundly affect the moral and ethical development of young people.
Maryam Bham argues that RE is the space where young people learn to think ethically, understand difference, and explore what it means to live together in a diverse society. She says that removing funding narrows access to the profession, particularly for underrepresented groups, and weakens the subject’s capacity to reflect the plurality of modern Britain.
Humanists UK has also objected to the bursary cut, saying “pupils need accurate, critical, and inclusive teaching about religions and non-religious worldviews”.
On last weekend’s BBC Radio 4 Sunday programme, the Department of Education issued a statement saying: “We’ve seen an increase in the number of people training to teach Religious Education in the past few years and our latest financial incentives package reflects that”. But Ms Bham says that increase was due to the bursary scheme, and to withdraw it as a temporary measure means that the deep crisis of a lack of specialist RE teachers remains unaddressed.