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Survey: religion lacks specialists

28 June 2013

RE COUNCIL

Priority: Annette Brooke MP signs an Early Day Motion on RE

Priority: Annette Brooke MP signs an Early Day Motion on RE

MOST primary-school teachers worry about teaching religious education because they lack the necessary knowledge and understanding, the report of a new survey from the National Association of Teachers of RE (NATRE) suggests.

Half of all primary teachers from the 679 primary schools that took part in the survey said that they had received less than three hours' preparation to teach RE during their initial training, and, for one quarter of them, RE had not been included in their course. Most teachers relied on the local agreed syllabus, and on web resources, which were used regularly by seven out of ten teachers.

The heavy reliance on the internet is a cause for concern, the report says, because alongside excellent, professional RE advice, teachers can find attractively produced, but inaccurate, misleading, and, in some cases, offensive material.

NATRE wants a review of primary RE training. Its chairman, Ed Pawson, said: "It is entirely unsatisfactory that primary teachers begin their careers feeling inadequately prepared to discuss issued relating to religions and beliefs."

The survey also suggests that schools are curtailing curriculum time for RE: 82 per cent of those questioned allocated the subject less than an hour a week. A member of the NATRE executive, Deborah Weston, said that the lack of training and the status of RE would get worse as the move to school-based teacher-training took effect. "How can teachers who themselves lack RE expertise train newcomers to the profession?" she asked.

The NATRE survey confirms the findings of a report published earlier this year by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on RE, which blamed government initiatives to improve schools' performance in core academic subjects which had marginalised those, such as RE, that were outside the core.

At an APPG event this week, students from seven schools joined MPs to campaign for RE. Stephen Lloyd, MP for Eastbourne, and the group's chairman, said: "We have heard many excuses given for relegating RE in schools to a single slot, taught by a teacher who has not benefited from subject training. Given the current social and political climate, this is shocking."

MPs present signed a new Early Day Motion in support of rigorous academic standards in RE.

The Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove, meets bishops at Lambeth Palace next week.

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