Almost half of people in Northern Ireland said they were dissatisfied that Christian churches wrote the school Religious Education (RE) curriculum, according to a new study from Queen’s University, Belfast.
The research follows a UK Supreme Court ruling that the current Christian-focused RE and collective worship are unlawful.
The study, ‘RWE for All’ (Religion and Worldviews Education for All), found 42 percent of respondents opposed church control of the syllabus, including 40 percent of Catholics and almost 90 percent of those with no religion. Just 32 percent said they were satisfied.
More than 60 percent agreed that learning about different beliefs could reduce prejudice and reinforce freedom of religion.
Researchers said minority faith and non-religious parents reported that the current Christian-centric RE and collective worship often felt marginalising or exclusionary.
They added that the legal right to withdraw children from RE was generally unsatisfactory, leaving some pupils feeling “othered” or excluded from class.
Teachers noted inconsistency in how RE was taught and felt vulnerable when managing diversity, especially when external religious visitors spoke in ways that were age-inappropriate or fear-inducing.
Dr James Nelson of Queen’s University said the research “affirms the necessity for reform of the curriculum” and suggested there was broad support for “transforming religious education classes into inclusive spaces where all students learn together about diverse worldviews with a view to engendering respectful social relations in a shared society”.
Co-author Dr Rebecca Loader of the University of Cambridge added that an inclusive RE curriculum “enables [children] to share their own perspectives and identities and to understand those of their friends and neighbours”.
Education Minister Paul Givan instructed schools to continue teaching RE based on the “holy scriptures”.
He added in a letter to the principals this week that his department will look to reform the RE syllabus in the wake of the Supreme Court judgment.