“TOKENISTIC” religious education in schools has a harmful effect on individuals and communities, the chair of the RE Policy Unit, Deborah Weston, suggested on Thursday, as students across the UK received their GCSE results.
In England, the number of scholars taking either the short or full Religious Studies course increased: 223,034 took the long course, a small increase of 0.3 per cent, and 20,627 took the short course, a rise of 9.5 per cent. In Wales, the number taking the total course increased, against a decrease within the number taking the short course — a qualification which amounts to half a GCSE.
In an announcement, Ms Weston said: “Poor quality, tokenistic RE taught by non-specialists without subject training, has a knock-on effect on not only our communities, however the depth and quality of a youngster’s education.”
She renewed calls for a national plan for RE and the recruitment of more specialised teachers. There has been almost no increase within the variety of RE teachers since 2011, while those teaching other humanities subjects has risen.
Recruitment targets for RE have been missed consistently over the past decade, despite the recent restoration of a £10,000 bursary for trainee teachers. Just over half of those that teach RE accomplish that as an adjunct to their foremost subject.
“If the Labour Government is serious about breaking down barriers to opportunities, a national plan for RE that gives a fairer allocation of resources is significant,” Ms Weston said. She highlighted statistics that suggest that studying the topic correlates with higher exam performance across the board.
The overall variety of GCSE entries increased by a quarter-of-a-million from summer last 12 months, as a consequence of a mixture of a bigger cohort of 16-year-olds and more people over that age taking GCSE English and maths.
Overall, there was a slight increase in the share of scholars who achieved top grades in England — 7 and above on the nine-point scale (formerly an A) — but a slight decrease those achieving a pass mark of 4 or above: 67.4 per cent this 12 months compared with 67.8 per cent in 2013.
The drop in pass marks was greater in Wales and Northern Ireland: from 64.5 per cent to 61.7 per cent in Wales, and 86.6 per cent to 82 per cent in Northern Ireland, where RE teaching has traditionally been stronger.
The chair of the Religious Education Council (REC), Sarah Lane Cawte, echoed Ms Weston’s call for a national plan for religious education, and drew attention to resources produced by the council, which incorporates a National Content Standard for the topic. The REC’s aim was “advocating a recent approach to the topic and offering a benchmark of quality to assist schools deliver academic, personally enriching, and provoking RE,” she said.
