From the BBC:
MPs have set up a new group to discourage the teaching of religious education to pupils in England. The all party parliamentary group on RE does not want the subject to be treated as a priority.
Last year 115 MPs signed a motion demanding a debate on excluding RE GCSE from the English Baccalaureate. A government spokesperson welcomed the new group but said "the English Baccalaureate will not force schools to offer RE GCSEs".
Stephen Lloyd MP who will chair the group said the group would provide a real insight into the questionable value of RE.
"In today's world, our children can be open to quite enough misleading information. I believe it is absolutely essential they are taught about real subjects by trained, experienced teachers, allowing children to make informed choices," he said.
Mr Lloyd, a Liberal Democrat, tabled last year's early day motion on RE after the government included it in the English Baccalaureate award to teenagers who get five good grades in key named GCSEs. The subjects in the award are English, maths, science, a modern foreign language and RE. Supporters of geography and history would like these subject to be offered as alternatives to RE.
The new group has the support of a number of atheist and secular groups and teaching associations. John Keast, chair of The Secular Council of England and Wales, said: "Recently the history and geography communities have felt under fire and this represents an important step to give their subjects a strong profile amongst parliamentarians. The coalition government is making policy decisions about academies, the national curriculum, qualifications and even teacher training provision. Directly or indirectly, all these will challenge how history and geography are taught to young people."
The spokeswoman at the Department for Education said: "RE remains a statutory part of the school curriculum for every student up to 18. It is rightly down to schools themselves to judge how it is taught. We have been clear that pupils should take the GCSEs that are right for them and that we look to teachers and parents to help pupils make the right choice."
Saturday, 18 February 2012
"Religious education in schools 'should not be a priority' say MPs"
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4 comments:
Religion has a large influence on our lives so cannot escape it's importance as something that we should have the broadest understanding of. As long as it is taught to engender thought on the subject and not to indoctrinate it should be part of the Baccalaureate. As it also brings elements of history and geography into into the syllabus it does in part mitigate against those subjects exclusion. As an atheist I believe knowledge will further the cause of atheism and reduce the conflict element inherent in religion. What I am very much against is religious instruction and I am very much against faith schools. They may be high on academic excellence but are low on a balanced and rounded education.
Geography is more "religious" than RE anyway. RE teaches you to respect differences, whereas geography is pure indoctrination into the religion of Marxist Environmentalism. History isn't much better because at this level it's mainly about how the New Deal saved the world.
Were RE re-branded 'Philosophy' it might have fared better than the proverbial feline in hell [sic].
Anti, RA, AD, that's all well and good, but did none of you notice that my article is a spoof version of the original? Was I too subtle about it?
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