Schools urged to back religious diversity
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Your support makes all the difference.Schools will be urged to teach their pupils about a broad range of religious faiths - not just Christianity - in new guidance to be published next week.
The guidance, from the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), the Government's exams watchdog, will suggest that pupils should be given an understanding of Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Judaism alongside Christianity.
It will also suggest that pupils should also be taught about the beliefs of humanism by the time they reach the school leaving age of 16. But it is understood to make no mention of atheism, which the Prime Minister's favourite think-tank, the Institute for Public Policy Research, has said should be taught in schools.
The guidance is designed to encourage pupils to see religious diversity as something "positive rather than threatening". Secondary school pupils should be encouraged to evaluate different religions and philosophies, it will argue. The guidance heralds a shift away from the early days of religious education under the national curriculum when the former Tory government suggested it should be taught in a broadly Christian context.
It is bound to give added credence to the call from David Bell, the chief inspector of schools, earlier this week, for ministers to consider scrapping the legal requirement for all state schools to hold a daily act of worship. Mr Bell also questioned whether the act of worship should still have to be "broadly Christian" - as demanded by an amendment to the 1944 Education Act passed by MPs 16 years ago.
However, QCA officials are at pains to point out that their guidance to schools is simply that - there is no requirement for them to follow it.
Ken Boston, the chief executive of the QCA, said: "Religious education in this country is based on two principles: that it should be a statutory part of education for all pupils and that it should reflect the particular needs and circumstances of local communities."
The guidance is likely to be welcomed by church leaders who will see it as an attempt to encourage an understanding of different faiths at a time of world turmoil, particularly over interpretations of Islam.
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