RELIGIOUS EDUCATION is one of secondary schools' most improved subjects,
finds HM Chief Inspector of Schools in his 2004-05 report.
GCSE, AS, and A-level entries have continued to rise since 1998, along with
standards. RE is particularly successful in post-16 courses, where teaching was
found to be good in more than nine out of ten schools. This makes it the
subject with the most very good teaching, says the report.
RE had been described as one of the weakest subjects in a review of
secondary schools between 1993 and 1997. Achievement at Key Stage 3 has
improved where the agreed syllabus has been changed. "This move in syllabus
content from, for example, festivals, rites of passage, and religious buildings
to issues such as the existence of God, life after death, and the problem of
suffering" has helped to bring about improvement.
In 1997, the lowest standards were found in RE taught as part of personal
and social education. Nearly 20,000 more Key Stage 4 pupils now take the
full-course GCSE. Numbers taking the short course have more than trebled.
A-level entries have increased by 3000.
But a serious shortage of specialist RE teachers is hampering further
progress, the report warns. Girls' achievement is significantly higher than
boys'. Assessment, leadership, and management remain weaker than in other
subjects.
The quality of RE teaching in primary schools is revealed in a separate
report as being the worst of all subject areas, with slow progress on issues
identified in 1998, including the limitation of pupils' knowledge to "stories
and festivals".
Pupils' achievement is described as good in two-fifths of schools, and
unsatisfactory in around one in 20. Teaching is good in just under half.
The C of E's spokesman on RE, the Revd Dr John Gay, said on Tuesday that the
report's evidence invariably excluded the quality of RE in aided schools. "If
aided schools could have been included, then the overall RE position would look
much better."
This was the last annual HMCI report to include a detailed analysis by
subject. "Changes to the inspection process mean that future reports will be
relying essentially on dipstick exercises to assess subject health."
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