The teaching of Religious Education (RE) plays a key role in reducing community conflict and the Government should do more to promote it, a group of parliamentarians has said.
An inquiry by the All Party Parliamentary Group on RE, made up of MPs and peers, has highlighted the benefits of RE and called on teachers to be better prepared on the subject.
The inquiry’s summary report, RE and Good Community Relations, warned that "a range of government policies" are "contributing to the lowering of the status of RE in some schools".
The Department for Education (DfE) has scrapped funding for trainee RE teachers for this academic year, arguing it needed to save money to fund teachers of “core” subjects such as English and mathematics.
Stephen Lloyd, the all-party group’s chairman, who is Liberal Democrat MP for Eastbourne, said the report showed how “good RE … can support a school’s broader responsibility to create well-rounded, knowledgeable and adaptable young people.”
He said the all-party group wanted to see such teaching become universal because it “prepares children for the challenges and opportunities of multi-cultural life, and helps them live harmoniously with others.”
The general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, Mary Bousted, added that good RE provided young people with a forum to raise questions about religion and belief.
A DfE spokesman said: “Religious education remains a compulsory subject in the national curriculum for children at primary and secondary schools.”
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