I am writing to you on behalf of Reading Faith Forum about Religious Education in schools after a unanimous vote in an open forum meeting. It has the support of all our trustees from the five main religious faiths in Reading. By law 5% of school time should be given to R.E. but we think that many schools give little or no time to the subject. We fear that changes might make this worse.

Naturally, as people of faith we believe that religious Education is important. However, we believe that there are strong arguments for proper RE in schools that will appeal to those who have no faith, namely it promotes:

♦ Social cohesion and understanding
♦ Development of moral thought and action

The government and most people, including those with no faith, would share our concern for cohesion and mutual understanding in our society. Tabloids are not the best source from which to understand peoples of faith! The government cannot at this stage afford to fund a big new programme to promote understanding in society, but you are already funding a project that should promote it, namely RE. We think the law should be enforced and enabled as a cheap and effective way of promoting this end.

Secondly, we are aware of a great need to address the problems of morality and right action in society lest it become “broken”. Study of religions raises the question of right action. The fact that the bible says you must not steal or murder may not have its ancient force with all people in schools today (though still worth mentioning). However, discovering that every major religion thinks that theft is wrong will at least raise the question with force. Finding out that, for all their specific differences, all religions take the question of morality seriously can start a real discussion of what do you think? Why do so many people think theft is wrong? What would you think if someone stole from you? Why do some people think we ought to pay tax? What do some people think you ought to help our neighbours? Why should we forgive? If we are not prepared to talk about these issues even when the force of the law says that we must then we are in a sad place.

We understand that trainee teachers on PGCE courses are given a maximum of one day, or more often just half of a day, to study all the religions from scratch and all the problems and techniques involved in teaching about them. This makes it very difficult for teachers. Perhaps all primary school teachers need better training in this or else we need peripatetic specialist RE teachers. If, however, RE is never inspected or assessed, then there is little motivation for teachers who are already under far too much pressure to tackle the subject seriously if at all. The law is not enforced even gently.

yours sincerely

Nigel Hardcastle