Church leaders and RE experts express concern in light of exam results

Religious Education is vital to a healthy society that teaches children core values, church leaders and RE experts argued this week as GCSE results showed an 8 per cent fall* in numbers taking the short course version of the subject following its exclusion from the EBacc, in contrast to a 17 per cent increase* in pupils taking the full course they would have begun before the EBacc was introduced.

Last week's RE A-Level results showed a year on year increase in students taking the subject. This, church leaders contended, may be directly affected in future by fewer schools offering RE at GCSE, including the short course, and cutting back the resources committed to a subject not included in the EBacc.

The Archbishops of Canterbury and York, Dr Rowan Williams and Dr John Sentamu, both expressed their concern about the current changes in education and RE during the House of Lords debate on the riots earlier this month. Dr Williams said that the current system had less room for the building of character and virtue. Dr Sentamu said that religious knowledge formed and created a culture and asked the Government how they planned to now fill the void.

Commenting on this year's A-level/GCSE RE results, the Bishop of Oxford, the Rt Revd John Pritchard, who chairs the Church of England's Education Division and National Society said: "Education is about the whole person, not just results and targets. RE is an academic subject that not only teaches pupils about different faiths and cultures but gives room for discussion that develops values, understanding and responsibility. We only have to look at the events of recent weeks to see how important this is.  This is not about the church guarding its territory but about safeguarding a subject that has value to all. We shall continue our conversation with the Government on this."

The Revd Dr John Gay, Director of the Culham Institute and speaking on behalf of the RE Council, said: "RE has been an important part of our education system for many years but we fear that the subject will start to lose its key role due to the latest changes. The popularity of the A-Level course, particularly philosophy and ethics, illustrated in the latest results shows that pupils enjoy the opportunity to think around their subject and have the chance to consider wider issues in our society. Many only go on to study at A-Level due to the enthusiasm they picked up at GCSE level and we fear this will be very different over the next few years. Despite the EBacc decision, we hope that the Government will come up with a constructive way forward to ensure schools resource RE as they have in recent years."
 
Notes to editors
*2011 GCSE results in England showed an increase for the 13th year running, with a 17% growth in RE full course candidates (from 170,767 to 199,752) from 2010 but a fall of 8.1 per cent (from 254,698 to 233,998) in RE short course candidates.

The Archbishop of Canterbury's full contribution in the Lords.
The Archbishop of York's full contribution in the Lords.
RE Council www.recouncil.org.uk 
Culham Institute www.culham.ac.uk