RE Northern Ireland

New Phase? Are we entering a new phase in the study of religion in education? A UK report on religion and belief in public life, Living with Difference , has recommended that change in religious education is needed on a number of fronts, from a reform of the law on collective worship to improved inspection procedures. In addition it states: "In Northern Ireland the present subject of RE should be renamed and broadened to include more religions and non-religious worldviews on the same basis as religions. It should be given an explicitly educational rather than confessional focus, and applied to all state-funded schools." Some of our close neighbours , including the Republic of Ireland and England,  have already made a  start in debating these issues. Education about Religions, Beliefs and Ethics - Ireland The focus of innovation in the Republic of Ireland is the introduction of a new curricular area in Primary Schools: Education about Religions, Beliefs and Eth...

Following extensive consultation and investigation an All Party Parliamentary Group at Westminster has produced a report on the current status of Religious Education in England. The group, chaired by Stephen Lloyd (a Lib-Dem MP for Eastbourne and Willingdon), were particularly interested in uncovering the nature and extent of recent changes in the staffing of RE in schools, the opportunities for Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for RE teachers and the provision of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) in RE. They discovered: about half of primary teachers and trainee teachers lack confidence in teaching RE around half of class teachers in Primary schools hand over the teaching of RE to others - in a quarter of cases to teaching assistants at secondary level, over 50% of teachers of RE have no qualification or expertise in the subject RE teachers have inadequate access to CPD In trying to understand the reasons for this situation Stephen Lloyd noted, 'our group we...