Lord Harries calls for national plan for Religious Education to bring radical improvement
from Religion Media Centre:
The former Bishop of Oxford, Lord Richard Harries, has called for a national plan to bring about radical improvement in Religious Education.
He told a Lords Grand Committee that local SACREs, standing committees on RE, had worked well as enablers of co-operation between the different faith communities, but they had not been able to bring about the radical improvement in RE that had been shown to be needed for many years.
The time had come for much more direction at a national level to address challenges outlined in the 2023 Oftsed report on RE, which he said was damning.
He said in too many schools, lessons were of poor quality or not offered at all, pupils were leaving school with a lack of knowledge, there was a shortage of teachers and no government money had been put in, so RE had continued to deteriorate.
Lord Warner, chair of the All Party Parliamentary Humanist Group, said there were question marks over the way in which religious belief was taught in schools and curriculum change was inevitable.
The Education minister, Baroness Diana Barran, confirmed it was vital that children receive high-quality religious education to gain knowledge, understanding and tolerance of a wide range of religious and non-religious beliefs. She recognised the challenges outlined in the debate but said the Government was committed to ensure that every school fulfilled its statutory duty to deliver Religious Education: “It is mandatory now and there are no plans to change this”.
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