A data review into the subject reveals a worrying number of academies are not offering high-quality religious education to the detriment of our children, society and our future global workforce, writes Bushra Nasir CBE in this week’s blog.
Around a third of academies in England and Wales do not teach RE to all of their pupils. That’s the standout statistic from Ofsted included in a data review of the subject released this week.
Amidst the report’s compelling evidence for the academic and societal benefits of high-quality RE, I found this statistic particularly worrying for the children in the academy system missing out. Especially in a month that saw the government announce plans for every school to join a MAT by 2030.
In short, this statistic is not good enough. Clearly, the case for every academy to teach RE needs to be made.
Reading the report into the subject, I thought back to my headship at Plashet School in Newham, where religious education was vital for both our curriculum and school community.
Not only was this a chance for greater interfaith understanding among our students, it was one of the few opportunities for children to think about some of life’s biggest questions.
I’ve since come to see religious education as a subject that is important not just for the wellbeing and personal development of children, but for their chances in a global workforce that increasingly values the ability to understand the pluralistic and diverse nature of modern belief.
Since I’ve left Plashet and become CEO at Drapers’ MAT, the world of RE teaching has come to recognise this. In 2018, the Commission on RE released its vision for the subject in its report Religion and Worldviews: the way forward.
The Commission argued that every child has a worldview - this being their unique way of understanding, interacting and responding to the world around them - and that teaching the knowledge and skills to understand different worldviews and get to grips with their own should become a bigger focus of religious education.
Not offering them the chance to do this, as Father of the House Sir Peter Bottomley MP wrote in a recent article promoting the worldviews approach,leaves ‘a gaping hole in the school curriculum’.
Moreover, teaching religious education in academies is a requirement of their funding agreement with the government.
But if senior politicians and funding agreements won’t sway senior MAT leaders, then perhaps they’ll listen to the students.
One of the many supportive pieces of testimony included in the data review of RE was year ten student Shreya who spoke at the recent parliamentary roundtable on the subject:
"RE is the one time in school where you can talk, listen and try to make sense of people, events and beliefs in the world.”
Let’s ensure every student in the academy system gets the same opportunity as Shreya.
The CST Blog welcomes perspectives from a diverse range of guest contributors. The opinions expressed in blogs are the views of the author(s), and should not be read as CST guidance or CST’s position.
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