Catholic Bishops in England and Wales have condemned plans by UK's
Education Secretary Michael Gove MP (pictured) not to recognise
religious education under the 'English Baccalaureate’, a qualification
that will recognise success at GCSE in five core academic subjects.
A resolution voted for by the Bishops at their recent conference in
Leeds claimed that they had “very serious reservations for the EBacc.”
History and geography, as well as modern languages, will be recognised but religious studies
will not.
The statement claimed that lessening the incentive for schools to
offer RE as a subject examined at GCSE will inevitably have implications
for the quality and the availability of RE offered.
The statement
added, “At a time of increasing religious and cultural literacy,
effectively to downgrade RE seems unwise to say the least.”
Fr Tim Gardner of the Catholic Education Service said that he feared
that the subject would be “squeezed out.”
He claimed that it would be,
“pushed into tutor time, or citizenship lessons and done in half an hour
a week.”
A Department for Education spokesperson also confirmed that RE
teaching would remain compulsory in schools up to the age of 16.
The spokesperson added, “Our White paper made it clear that the
Baccalaureate is only one measure of performance and should not be the
limit of schools ambitions for its pupils. The number of core subjects
has been kept small deliberately to allow the opportunity for wider
study. There are valuable and rigorous qualifications not in the EBacc,
like RE, which pupils should feel free to take if they want.”