Religious education reform bill advances in parliament

A bill that would require schools to teach non-religious worldviews in religious education has advanced in the House of Lords.

The Education (Non-religious Philosophical Convictions) Bill would rename religious education (RE) "religion and worldviews" (RW) and require most state funded schools to teach non-religious worldviews alongside religious ones.

Voluntary-aided schools with a religious character would be exempt from the changes.

According to its creator, Baroness Burt of Solihull, the bill would bring the syllabus in line with legal requirements under the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) and English case law.

During a House of Lords debate on Friday, Burt cited the 2015 case of Fox v Secretary of State for Education, in which the court held: "The State must accord equal respect to different religious convictions, and to non-religious beliefs: it is not entitled to discriminate between religions and beliefs on a qualitative basis".

"Too many schools, and too many locally agreed syllabuses, still fail to afford equal respect to non-religious worldviews", she noted.

This is despite 2010 government guidance on RE which states: "Pupils should have the opportunity to learn that there are those who do not hold religious beliefs and have their own philosophical perspectives, and subject matter should facilitate integration and promotion of shared values".

Unlike any other mandatory subject, RE syllabuses are locally determined through Standing Advisory Councils on Religious Education (SACREs). While they have the option to include non-religious worldviews, this is not mandatory. Some SACREs exclude representatives of non-religious worldviews, such as humanism, or deny them voting rights.

Under the bill, it would be compulsory for SACREs to include non-religious representatives.

Baroness Burt also invoked Article 2 of the First Protocol of the ECHR, which requires schools to provide religious education in line with the philosophical views of students' parents. Last year, the High Court in Northern Ireland ruled a near exclusive focus on Christianity in RE and collective worship constituted a human rights violation.

The bill's approach has been endorsed by both the Religious Education Council of England and Wales and the most recent commission on RE, chaired by the then Dean of Westminster. It is already being implemented in Wales under the name "Religion, Values and Ethics".

The bill enjoyed support from both non-religious and religious peers alike. Lord Griffiths of Bury, former president of the Methodist Conference, said it was long overdue that "we Christians put our faith out into the marketplace, where it can hold its own or not according to the interplay of forces and realities that exist in the real world that we live in."

Baroness Uddin, who is a Muslim, said the current "majority Christian environment" is "inflexible and polarised", leaving children who do not share that belief "isolated" and marginalised. Baroness Bakewell said the 2021 Census results, which show Christianity is now a minority religion in England and Wales, highlighted the need for reform.

Lord Cashman said current RE provision falls short of the "critical and pluralistic" approach required by case law and that we have "everything to gain from a wide education".

The Bishop of Southwark, opposing the bill, said it was "a failure of … intellect" to not "support the role of religion in public life".

Speaking on behalf of the government, Baroness Barran said: "Christianity remains the most common response in the census, and it is therefore appropriate that religious education in schools without a religious designation should continue to be, in the main, of a broadly or wholly Christian nature".

The bill will now be scrutinised by the entire chamber at the Committee Stage.

NSS: 'Reform is now long overdue'

NSS campaigns officer Alejandro Sanchez said: "Welsh schoolchildren are already reaping the benefits of a more critical and pluralistic approach in the new Religion, Values and Ethics curriculum.

"Their English counterparts should be equally entitled to an education that puts religious and non-religious views on an equal footing.

"Christianity is now a minority religion in England. That it continues to dominate religious education in our schools is completely untenable.

"Reform is now long overdue."

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