From Mr Ed Pawson
Sir, - What amazing news to read (News, 3 October)
that the Government is to restore its financial support for
graduates training to become secondary RE teachers.
The evidence from the Department for Education's own workforce
survey has been clear for some time: there is a frightening
shortfall in qualified RE teachers in secondary schools. There is
an indisputable need to bring more RE teachers into schools, and
reinstating bursaries is but the first step towards redressing this
imbalance.
I remain puzzled, however, about why the amount to be offered to
RE graduates is less than half of that offered to geography or
design-and-technology graduates earning a 2:1 degree. Without
specialist RE teachers, we cannot expect schools to enable young
people to develop their understanding about the complex patterns of
religions and world-views in the contemporary world.
If we want a fairer, more respectful society, then religious
literacy has to be high on our agenda, and it requires expertise to
enter into informed conversations with teenagers about
religion.
ED PAWSON
Chair of the National Association of Teachers of RE (NATRE)
The King's School, Ottery St Mary
Devon EX11 1RA