should religious education be a compulsory school subject

There is nothing—unless I have missed it—about the bigotry, persecution, intolerance and inter-faith conflict and wars, which have been so marked a feature of human history and which scar Palestine, the Balkans, Northern Ireland, Kashmir and Indonesia in our own day. In 1938, the year of Munich, British official thinking was especially affected by the German experience: Germany had been revivified by an ideal: the Aryan religion had wrought a revolution in conduct; it had had, demonstrably and undeniably, ‘a powerful effect on life and character’. What is statutory is that religious education should be taught; but its content is left to the framers of the Agreed Syllabuses. He has written extensively on the aims of education and the school curriculum. But how far is the original purpose acceptable today? It is also an inheritance from the earlier part of the twentieth and the nineteenth centuries, when religious instruction, as in our own day, was also designed to make pupils morally better persons, although this was not explicitly connected with democracy. What can the moral content of their religious education lessons add to their moral education? Registered in England & Wales No. The Spens Report on grammar and technical high schools of 1938 suggested that the solution lay in religious education. Another solution would be to abandon religious education as a separate entity altogether. They each appear to be saying that religious education should be dealing with ethical learning more generally. In this paper I am not concerned primarily with matters of historical explanation but with issues of justification for religious education as a compulsory subject. Moral education is not the only aim of religious education in Britain today. Take the section in the booklet just mentioned (QCA, 2000: inside front cover), about ‘the importance of religious education’. It is time for it to hand the moral baton on to those less likely to stumble. Religious education encourages pupils to reflect on, analyse and evaluate their beliefs, values and practices and communicate their responses. ‘[The churches] will continue to exist in some skeletal form with increasing commitment from a decreasing number of supporters’ (p. 198). In: Berglund J., Shanneik Y., Bocking B. These involve epistemologically distinctive forms of argumentation, to which all pupils should be exposed (Hand, 2003). ‘Should RE be a compulsory school subject?’ British Journal of Religious Education Vol 26 No 2 Reprinted in Philosophy of Education II edited by Richard Smith Routledge, 2015. Few of RE’s proponents today, if pressed, would accept this. Despite the clear evidence of increasing secularization, religious education (RE) is still a compulsory part of the curriculum in state schools in England and Wales. My overall conclusion is that the justifications which have been given for keeping religious education as a separate school subject are deficient. It is not easy for most people to disentangle the two claims, to see that the logical dependence goes one way in the first statement and the other in the second. None of the material mentioned in this paragraph has statutory status. IF the government wants to make this country a Christian nation, then it should make religious education a compulsory subject from elementary to university level so we see better results after some years. Increasing scepticism about it over this period is exemplified in the writings of a leading figure in the religious education world, Edwin Cox. 8mins 11secs Compulsory religious education in schools? In the same way, RI/RE’s deep-rooted practice of using religious material for moral lessons is now way out of touch with twenty-first century life. The idea that morality needs the backing of religion was taken for granted in the arguments around the 1944 Act. %PDF-1.4 Does that mean it should be scrapped—that its legally privileged place in the curriculum as a compulsory subject from 5 to 16 should be abandoned? If they already behave well, they do not need the further motivational backing that some may think religion can provide. The same is true of ‘Does God exist?’ Despite appearances, this is not a religious question. Early in 1944 Mass Observation showed that 90% of them were in favour (Niblett, 1966). This assumption must now be put to the test. Another consideration is: what level of sophistication in this religious/scientific understanding is a reasonable objective for children up to 16? Currently parents are able to request their children do not take part in sex and religious education, under an opt-out arrangement. Between 1970 and 1990 active adult membership of Trinitarian churches in the UK dropped from 9.3 to 6.6 million. How do we know that it is right to keep promises? Not that this was, by any means, the only motive at work behind the 1944 change. Teaching religion in schools helps students understand the differences among the principles of each and every religion. To see this in more detail, we first need a bird’s-eye sketch of the current situation. link Programs . Religion has often been held to be an autonomous form of inquiry, but this is misguided. Register to receive personalised research and resources by email. I The 1944 justification Many religious educators would put the emphasis elsewhere. Aim 3—encouraging pupils to consider questions of meaning and purpose in life—could be interpreted in a factual sense as about children’s learning what Jewish, Hindu, Christian and other religions have said about these matters. Once again, there is another way of interpreting such statements which puts weight on intellectual rather than ethical ends. Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations.Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab. The first two of these have mainly to do with the aim, mentioned above, of understanding and respecting the plurality of faiths in British society. Religious education does not seek to urge religious beliefs on pupils nor [sic] compromise the integrity of their own beliefs by promoting one religion over another. It does not follow from the statement that someone commands us to do something that we ought to do it. Is compulsory religious education justified? Compare the study of religion with that of military history or the law. Intellectual confusion can, of course, be challenging and lead to intellectual growth. The first—and perhaps most effective—vehicle is the ethos of the school: the ideals, rules and virtues which it celebrates and reinforces in its day-to-day life, its pedagogy, and the way in which it is run. It has never been changed. Religious Education in England is mandated by the Education Act 1944 as amended by the Education Reform Act 1988 and the School Standards and Framework Act 1998. Couple of years back religious studies; Islamic religious Knowledge (IRK) or Bible Knowledge (BK) were made compulsory the Nigerian School curriculum from primary up to Junior Secondary School (JSS). In statistical terms, in 1998 only 21% of British people firmly believed in God. There are scientific considerations which have a bearing on this as well as non-scientific ones. To some it was a war between Nazi and Christian, but to most it was a war between totalitarianism and democracy. Teaching religion, as a required course, would cause contradictions in education. This article is a reasoned, normative argument for making religion education (RE) a separate, compulsory, time-tabled and totally normal school subject at all levels in public schools. What made Britain decide to make it compulsory needs to be understood against the political background of the time. The two can get entwined, of course. What are the philosophical considerations? Religious topics and prayer used to be a part of the school curriculum and school days in the U.S. up until June 25th, 1962 when in the Engel v. Vitale case, the Supreme Court decided against it. There is a lot to be said in favour of this aim. Religious education should be compulsory in public schools. In 1944 religious instruction (RI), as well as a daily act of corporate worship, was made compulsory in all state schools, subject to the right of withdrawal if parents desired this. Recommended articles lists articles that we recommend and is powered by our AI driven recommendation engine. Could they be taken otherwise? Is its compulsory status justifiable? [11] OSCE, the Toledo Guiding Principles on Teaching [5] J. I think religious education should be compulsory, as an educative subject - ie, learn about the different faiths and their beliefs in school. Pros Cons ... given that most people have some bias on this subject. Radio National. If the trends mentioned continue into the twenty-first century, this majority can be expected to increase. The original, explicitly political, link between religion and the democratic way of life is not found in the current regulations. It should also be taught that a lack of faith is just as valid as having faith. 3099067 So far I have looked at the actual rationales officially given for compulsory religious education and found them wanting. Through the use of distinctive language, listening and empathy, religious education develops pupils’ skills of enquiry and response. The close linkage throughout the Model Syllabuses and the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) aims between religious and moral notions may engender or reinforce in some children the notion that morality is impossible without religion. He has produced a number of tables and graphs showing its unprecedented decline after 1960 after 20 years of increasing religiosity. Conclusion. Yet, as in other subjects of the school curriculum, old patterns continue. … We use cookies to improve your website experience. However it happens, children—most children—grow up believing that moral rules are important and conforming for the most part to them. Reprinted in Education and Religion: Major Themes in Education, edited by 9mins 6secs Are the churches in Ukraine becoming militarised? Whatever the answer—and we will come back to this—there are three ways in which current guidance for religious education in the Model Syllabuses falls short. The emphasis now is—more broadly—on moral/ethical values. A quibble—and it is not a minor one; we will come back to it—is that if only a minority of the population, at most, belong to faith communities, why should all the emphasis be put on pupils’ understanding and respecting the differing views of this minority? Religious education was made compulsory in 1944 partly so as to support the moral values underlying democracy. CRE is a compulsory and examinable subject in primary school but elective subject in What could replace the dots in ‘We ought not to lie because …’? Neither, thirdly, do the thousands of items in the Model Syllabuses say anything negative about religion or religions. School should be for serious learning not religious indoctrination. This syllabus, which was based on St. Luke's Gospel, was first introduced in Kenya in 1972 (Walaba, 1999). Aims 3, 4, 5 and 7 are more controversial. If a high level of sophistication is required, more of the 500 periods could be filled up. Pupils learn about religious and ethical teaching, enabling them to make reasoned and informed judgements on religious, moral and social issues. Aside Mathematics and English Language, one is expected to pass one of those subjects as well as it was made to appear a compulsory subject. It thus became the only compulsory subject, the former state control of the elementary curriculum having been abandoned in 1926 and state determination of the grammar school curriculum soon to be ended in 1945. The war was seen as a clash of ideologies. Religious education was made compulsory in 1944 partly so as to support the moral values underlying democracy. The issue, in any case, cannot be resolved without looking at what priority discussion of these religious/scientific questions should have in comparison with other activities which might compete for the same curricular space. In what way could it be dependent? It runs the dangers of confused thinking outlined in Section (i). "Religious education remains compulsory for all state-funded schools, including academies and free schools, at all key stages and we expect all schools … Has it ever been acceptable? (eds) Religious Education in a Global-Local World. The second defect of the Model Syllabuses is that they provide so little opportunity for assessing the soundness of the views presented. Extra subjects. But we are dealing with schoolchildren, not university specialists in theology. Its exclusively Christian emphasis, prominent in the above quotations, was replaced by a multi-faith perspective, reflecting the plurality of religions now found in the society. There is no indication that many people question the existence of God. How desirable is it that religious education be used a vehicle of moral education? This is still, in one way, an inheritance from 1944, since once one asks questions about the justification of democracy, it is to broader ethical values like autonomy, justice, equality and liberty that one turns (Harrison, 1993). bring in scientific and philosophical as well as ­religious perspectives. Another factor, which must have influenced Butler and others, was the remarkable level of support among teachers during the war for religious education in state schools. The subject consists of the study of different religions, religious leaders, and other religious and moral themes. By the time the 1944 Education Bill—which was to introduce compulsory religious instruction—was being debated in parliament, a firm association had been made between the Christian religion and the cause of democracy itself. IF the government wants to make this country a Christian nation, then it should make religious education a compulsory subject from elementary to university level so we see better results after some years. It is certainly problematic. Could religious education be justified on these lines? The argument of the last subsection assumed that morality is logically independent of religion. The House of Representatives on Tuesday waded into the controversial introduction of National Values/Civic Education in school curriculum, which requires children to be taught Islamic Religious Knowledge and Christian Religious Knowledge as compulsory subjects, irrespective of their religious … Aim 2 makes an explicit link between religious education and morality, in that to understand different religions one has to see that they each bring with them the moral precepts associated with that religion (e.g., the Roman Catholic religion treats practising homosexuality as a sin). Before 1988 indeed, religious education was the only compulsory subject. But would this justify military history and law as self-standing school subjects? In my opinion, religious studies should not be made compulsory but optional. Another has to do with understanding and respecting other religions and beliefs. This civic justification faded after the war, but even today one official justification of religious education is in terms of moral education. This account is broadly confirmed by Callum Brown (2001). The title of this thread is what it's all about: Education about religion should be compulsory in schools. Pupils’ discussions about promise-keeping and important values in their lives could in principle be no more than devices to help them to understand what Hinduism and Sikhism involve. The religious education clauses of the 1944 Act, Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), School Curriculum and Assessment Authority (SCAA). There are plenty of other places the kids can get that. There are different issues here. Because of this ruling, all states allow children to be exempt from compulsory attendance requirements if they receive equivalent education somewhere else. To begin with the practical. I Am In My Final Year Of Secondary School, And I Have Never Liked R.E Because I Do Not Believe In God, Heaven Or Hell. Aside Mathematics and English Language, one is expected to pass one of those subjects as well as it was made to appear a compulsory subject. In our own terms, we may ask whether lying is wrong because God disapproves of it, or whether God disapproves of it because it is wrong. Ah yes I am in the favor of the topic that yes religious and patient should be taught in school as a compulsory subject. Children brought up within faith communities are inducted into moral rules and values embedded in their faith. Religious education appears to come out as a vehicle of general moral/ethical education—for all pupils, not just those from religious families. It is said that the subject matter is very important if you are going to understand other people and other societies. Sincerely, I'm yet to see the benefits of these studies on the larger nigerian society. Should Non Believers Be Forced To Learn About Something They Dont Believe In? Labyrinthine arguments are no more in place here than in work on political or moral issues. Philosophical doubts about the possibility of basing morality on religion go back to Plato. People argue whether students should learn about world religions in school or no. The sliced pepper is still a hot favourite in the school art room but not in the art world. Religious education was made compulsory in 1944 partly for moral/civic reasons and the legacy continues along with other aims to do with understanding and respecting different faiths. On the other hand, the pressure to move towards interdenominational religious education, while certainly a causal factor, does not so obviously yield a justification for the subject. Since 1988 Christianity has been given a special weighting among these. So far, the focus has been on the grounds for moral claims. By r.e. Therefore, people were forced to ask themselves what was the basis of this democratic tradition for which so many men had fought and died. If presented as mythology and made into a voluntary subject then by all means yes. Religious education was made compulsory in 1944 partly so as to support the moral values underlying democracy. Britain is a secular society and becoming increasingly so. By r.e. The point of asking this is—again—to throw doubt on the claim that morality must depend on religion. 10–12). Rather than teach children about different religions, it should engage them in the examination of religious claims—about the existence of God, for instance, or whether there is an afterlife. There are problems, as we have seen, about establishing the first of the two alternatives. By exploring issues within and across faiths, pupils learn to understand and respect different religions, beliefs, values and traditions (including ethical life stances), and their influence on individuals, societies, communities and cultures. If religion is to be studied, why should the whole emphasis be on positive features? Students also need to understand and respect other pictures of how best to live a human life, pictures not necessarily dependent on religion: the pursuit of physical pleasures and comforts, devotion to learning and the pursuit of truth, vegetarianism, feminism, views which highlight sport, artistic pursuits, adventure, social service, politics, intimacy, self-knowledge. With PSHE and citizenship as well as history now part of the National Curriculum, there is plenty of scope for including religious material in the work of other subjects. Should religious education be a compulsory school subject? As Callum Brown has shown, it was during and just after the war that organized Christianity in Britain enjoyed something of a recovery. It should be purged of the three blemishes which now mar it, as well as of its role in general moral education. (Loukes, 1965, p. 23). Boundaries of Religious Freedom: Regulating Religion in Diverse Societies, vol 4. John White is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy of Education at the Institute of Education, University of London. Among the thousands of items in the two Model Syllabuses, there is none that I have found that acknowledges that there are non-religious people who live according to different values and beliefs. In England, Christian church attendance dropped from 10.2% of the adult population to 7.7% between 1980 and 2000; in the same period in Wales it dropped from 12.5% to 6.6% (HMSO, 2000). ‘Should RE be a compulsory school subject?’ British Journal of Religious Education Vol 26 No 2 Reprinted in Philosophy of Education II edited by Richard Smith Routledge, 2015. There is no good reason for keeping them hived off in a discrete part of the curriculum. One of the reasons (in the explanatory sense) why RI became compulsory was its perceived importance as a foundation for civic unity. After all, religious education is part of the curriculum up until Year 9 and understanding political theory is just as essential to understanding the world and the motivations of the people we interact with. The nine-fold statement on the importance of the subject, mentioned in Section II, makes this clear enough. This is that religion has traditionally been seen, and is still seen in some quarters, as a backing for morality, as the foundation on which our moral beliefs and conduct rest. It contains nine statements, as follows: Religious education develops pupils’ knowledge and understanding of, and their ability to respond to, Christianity and the other principal religions represented in Great Britain. <>stream This liberation in attitudes undermined the pivotal place of women in Christian social thought between 1800 and the mid-twentieth century—as respectable wives, mothers and young girls. Religious education encourages pupils to consider questions of meaning and purpose in life. Perhaps so—unless other reasons for it can do better than those officially provided. I think there should be a certain amount of compulsary religious education, up to the time when the students decide which subjects they want to concentrate on for exams. But it is hard to see how Aims 5 and 7 can be given an intellectualist interpretation. This could be through a private or religious school , homeschooling by the child's parents, or instruction by a private tutor. They may be motivated by sympathy, loyalty or concern for the underprivileged. The same verdict is passed on a third justification, based on a recommended switch in the content of religious education classes to the critical analysis of religious claims. There is pressure to broaden the traditional academic content of subjects like geography and technology so as to include discussion of the ethical implications of work in the field. In so doing, it will ensure that the interests of religious, as well as non-religious students are respected and that nobody will feel discriminated. Religious Education Should Be a Part of the School Curriculum? They are unlikely these days to back these demands by reference to anything religious, to God’s love, for instance. Much of this new subject is about self-understanding. History and citizenship can together explore the role of religions in human life for good and ill, both in the past and not least today, with the rise of fundamentalism as a major political force. And to the majority Christian ethics seemed to be the basis of British democracy … it was vital that the children of the nation should learn about the Christian faith in order that they, as citizens of the future, might have the necessary moral fibre to uphold the democratic way of life … (Rosalind Strachan, quoted by Niblett, 1966, p. 20). It is less in evidence today. If we want them to think clearly about ethical matters it would make better sense to rely on vehicles like school ethos, PSHE and citizenship rather than on religious education with its multiple potentialities for sowing confusion. �(2��FA�'=]��8�L���Pۣ�> �d:�^u��a�zQ�G�"�D��e�୏��J��)y��IF�Gy��Q���9D�$^pzF��XZ8'�4����P`H�?�f>m�~qպ�y�}�� _����w! In 1966 he wrote ‘It would seem that the true motivation to moral conduct is the realization that this particular action is right because in some way it accords with the underlying purpose of creation, vague though our conception of that may be’ (p. 59). For a century and more before the 1944 Act, RI, as it was then, operated within the largely unquestioned assumption that morality was inconceivable without religion. Cox states in the earlier quotation that ‘this particular action is right because in some way it accords with the underlying purpose of creation’. It would help children to see things as a whole if the questions we have been discussing were brought under this same umbrella. From a democratic perspective, this may seem unproblematic as it can be seen as promoting the democratic ideals of liberty, tolerance and fraternity. How much harder is it for young children to keep a clear head on this matter! Although there have been smaller scale increases in religious observance in non-Trinitarian Christianity and in other faiths, e.g. With another general election around the corner, it seems to me perfectly sensible that politics should be a compulsory subject in school. Where was the counter-ideal to mobilize the energies and command the dedication of the British people? I firmly believe that. As far as I can see, there are no specifically religious questions—beyond those that already assume a religious framework, like ‘Is God one person or three?’ Questions like ‘Is there an after-life?’ may have religious answers, but they themselves are questions to which various considerations are relevant. The title itself generates a bias towards a certain point of view. A full historical treatment of that event would also have to lay great weight on the desire to move beyond denominational particularism in the provision of religious instruction (Niblett, 1966). Lack of agreement among secular philosophers about the basis of morality should not be of much comfort, though, to those who believe morality is dependent on religion. Discounting has been applied where pupils have taken the same subject more than once, only the first entry is counted . To give just two out of very many: from work on Hinduism at Key Stage 3 (age 11–14), children ‘should be encouraged to think about’, among other things, ‘the importance of keeping promises’, ‘the use of violence’, ‘qualities they admire in people’ (SCAA, 1994, Model 2, p. 43). Teaching religion as a mandatory subject in a public school violates the separation of church and state. Every subject is expected to contribute to such aims as ‘valuing ourselves, our families and other relationships, the wider groups to which we belong and the environment in which we live’; ‘the virtues of truth, justice, honesty, trust and a sense of duty’; ‘being responsible and caring citizens’, etc. ... Should (compulsory) school education focus on science rather than humanities? School should be for serious learning not religious indoctrination. .m�,Bg�,�=����w2��=�\�����LB�/�"��u���o���O��M�G�k� �кjD�4.8�܂f0OF��v}�%ۦ[7a4u��������,�����j�������Ç�H�W��?��g��'��zK��=͛|�N ���d�(����'g��Y;��("�j"V�z�U�kU�"���ϱ*�CQ�e��P�bKu��׫P�0�S���ӄ/qZ���9k�1�����U�-�}9 s������uk| ���,[��>�? In which case, morality exists independently of religion. In view of this development, Religious Studies, as a subject, must be made compulsory at the secondary school level to equip the young minds against vices of corruption, Omotoye further added. ‘B ought to do X’. Yet we find on every side profound ignorance of the Christian faith itself. Often, though, it simply breeds distress. Their parents—agreed, there are exceptions—encourage them to tell the truth, be considerate of other people, keep their promises, and so on. 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