A leading Catholic RE teacher has warned that the shortage of RE teachers will have a “profound effect” on Catholic schools and urged the Department for Education to support the recruitment of more RE specialists as a new academic year begins.
With government targets for recruiting RE teachers being missed in eleven of the last twelve years, the Religious Education Council of England and Wales and the National Association for Teachers of RE wrote last month to Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson to call for a national plan to prioritise RE and provide sufficient resources.
RE teacher Andy Lewis, deputy head at St Bonaventure’s secondary school in east London, pointed out that the national shortage of RE teachers includes Catholic schools. He underlined the need for greater government support to recruit specialist RE teachers.
Mr Lewis told The Tablet: “The national shortage of RE teachers has a profound effect on Catholic schools. We are also struggling to recruit specialist RE teachers. In secondary education, it is important to have a level of expertise to deliver the subject especially at GCSE and A Level.”
With ever-diminishing numbers of RE teachers being trained, there are few fully staffed RE depts in the country, he added.
The Catholic Education Service refers to RE as “the core of the core curriculum” and Catholic schools dedicate at least 10 per cent of the timetable to the subject.
Mr Lewis, who has authored RE textbooks and helped develop a new RE qualification with support from the Catholic Education Service, praised the teaching of RE in Catholic schools, saying that it “has a clear and documented purpose and systems of support via dioceses, the CES and resource publishers”.
However, there are still some Catholic schools whose RE departments are not fully staffed and where the subject is taught by non-RE specialists.
“This has an impact on the delivery and quality of the subject, even with the goodwill of non-specialists,” Mr Lewis said. Joining calls for the new government to introduce a national plan, he added: “As part of the wider recruitment strategy, it is vital the DfE looks at subjects that have struggled to recruit and offer additional support and incentive.”
In July, Ms Phillipson pledged to recruit 6,500 new teachers but has made no specific mention of supporting the recruitment of more RE specialists.
Loading ...
