GCSE and RE – just what does it all mean?
In the week of the GCSE results frenzy, we are told once more of an increase in the number of students taking GCSE in Religious Studies.
The Church of England, never wanting to let a bandwagon pass, announces that this is because "Young people are clamouring for a deeper understanding of religious perspectives on issues of the day and how moral and ethical questions are considered by the major faiths."
But there is no indication of this in day to day life. Young people are certainly not battering at the church doors for admission – in fact, they stay away in their droves. (In 1979, the number, in thousands, of those less than 20 years old attending the Anglican Church was 602. In 1988 it was 367; in 1998 it was 216; and 2005 it was 174.)
So why do they want to study RE? Well, Ed West, a rather fanatical religious blogger on the Daily Telegraph website, came up with the answer:
“GCSE religious studies exams are so easy that an average 8-year-old frozen in suspended animation in the 1950s could, upon being awoken, walk into an exam hall and achieve an A* within 20 minutes. It was recently revealed, after all, that a religious studies GCSE paper asked pupils to “name the two people” standing beside the baby in the nativity scene. Another asks why Christmas is “an important festival for Christians”.
Not just stupid, of course, but biased. One paper from last year asked: “What is abortion?” The answer being: “The removal of a foetus.” Removal? That’s, er, putting it gently.
And: “What is euthanasia?” “Mercy killing. Gentle, easy death/good death (literally), allowing someone who is terminally ill to die with dignity.” Funny, that very catchphrase, “die with dignity”, happens to be pretty much the name of the main pro-euthanasia pressure group.
These religious studies GCSEs do not signify a great revival in religious literacy. Rather, to use an analogy that GCSE history students will understand, since all they seem to study is Nazi Germany, they are as worthless as Weimar Republic Marks.
These young people aren’t daft. They know that they can boost their exam results with hardly any effort by including Religious Studies. Look at this site for a description of the short course GCSE which makes the proud boast “There is no course work for the Short Course in GCSE Religious studies!”
Yet the Church of England uses this little anomaly as a hook to call on the Government to invest more in specialist training for religious education teachers. And some new entrants to the profession even qualified for a “golden hello” bonus of £2,500, under the previous administration; it is not clear whether this still applies.
Terry Sanderson, President of the National Secular Society, said: “This latest bit of flim-flam from the Church of England should be seen for what it is – a manipulation of the truth. We need investment in teaching, but in teachers who are going to equip pupils for real life. Religious Education is the province of the church and if it is going to be carried out, it should be in religious premises on a voluntary basis. RE should not be permitted to consume huge amounts of the shrinking education budgets so badly needed for the imparting of real knowledge and skills.”