Religious education 'must not be neglected'

January 24 2011

The government has been urged not to neglect religious education (RE) in British schools.

Speaking to the Guardian, the right Rev John Pritchard, Bishop of Oxford and chairman of the Church of England's Education Board, expressed concern that the subject does not form part of the English baccalaureate.

To gain this new qualification GCSE students are required to gain A* to C-grades in maths, science, English, a humanities subject and a foreign language.

He claimed it is "highly dangerous" to neglect religion in schools when it is one of the tools that can be used to create the kind of cohesive society that we are looking for.

"The Church of England is pretty astonished at the omission of RE. I want to fire a warning salvo that there will be huge objection from the church and many other parts of society if it is not part of the core curriculum," he told the newspaper.

The bishop insisted that the subject is just as academically challenging as history and geography.

News brought to you by TimePlan, the UK's FIRST for teaching jobs

Want to know more about teaching in the UK?

News Homepage