John Keast, Chair of the Religious Education Council, October 2011

Three previous papers have described the critical situation which RE in England has faced over the past eighteen months, and outlined the threats to RE arising from the contextual, legal, curriculum and qualifications changes taking place in English education. This paper argues that the critical issues RE faces actually present it with a unique opportunity to develop a new and positive way forward for the subject that is both exciting but challenging. Failure to grasp this opportunity will set RE back by decades; a co-operative endeavour will provide the basis for future stability and greater success.

A critical but not fatal situation for RE in 2011

1.       RE has long been an essential component in English education. From 1944 until the late 1960s it comprised almost wholly education in or about Christianity accompanied by acts of Christian worship. From the 1970s the curriculum widened to include learning about and from a range of religions found in Britain, and provision of all acts of worship has greatly declined. Throughout this period, the RE curriculum has been shaped within the context of the ‘dual system' established in 1944, of local authority (‘County') schools and voluntary schools, mainly church schools, supported to different degrees by local authorities.  Notwithstanding the changes brought about in 1988 and the following years, the RE curriculum in most schools continued to depend heavily on the capacity and interest of local authorities and their SACREs. The development of the National Curriculum and various non-statutory parallel forms of guidance for RE, the influence of Ofsted, and rise of the GCSE (Short Course) in RS all contributed to improved provision and quality in RE, though not consistently so across the country since the mid-1990s, but within the context of the 1944 settlement.

2.       The situation unfolding in 2011 is changing all this, and so is the most critical for RE for many decades.

a.       The drive towards academies and free schools intended to create an ‘independent' system of education tends to undermine the statutory entitlement on which RE has traditionally depended. Already RE is required to be provided in academies only by virtue of their funding agreements, and not in accordance with any agreed syllabus.

b.      Ofsted no longer routinely inspects compliance by schools with statutory requirements.

c.       The capacity of LAs to review/update agreed syllabuses, support schools in teaching them, and resource their SACREs is diminishing. Few local authorities now have RE advisers.  With notable exceptions, SACREs are becoming increasingly redundant and impotent as schools in their areas become further detached from locally agreed syllabuses.

d.      Targets for RE PGCE places in Initial Teacher Training are being reduced; fewer new teachers are being trained, and there will be fewer qualified RE teachers in the future.

e.      The review of the National Curriculum, intended to reduce its size and influence but set out core essential knowledge, does not include a review of RE.

f.        The English Baccalaureate excludes Religious Studies as a humanities subject and this is seriously weakening the position of RE in secondary schools.

g.       There is no longer a national RE adviser for curriculum, assessment and qualifications.

h.      The government appears impervious to attempts to convince it of the unintended consequences of its policies on RE and is in danger of presiding over its decline by neglect.

3.       This brief summary does not do justice to the massive efforts being made to prevent such a situation getting worse. A twin danger is that if people focus on the threats, they become a self-fulfilling prophecy. So, despite the changes above and the threats they pose to the provision and quality of RE, there are some fundamental and positive things to remember.

a.       RE offers and provides an essential and unique contribution to the education of children, young people and society at large. Even though the case is not always well articulated or unanimously agreed, this is accepted by government, most educationalists and parents.

b.      The legal requirement to provide RE in all schools and for all pupils not withdrawn by their parents has been reaffirmed by the government many times and in many forms, and is not likely to change.

c.       RE is mostly taught by regular, trained teachers with a professionally-structured curriculum in agreed and publicly-available syllabuses, using sound resources and methods. This is not the case in much of Europe

d.      The quality and commitment of RE teachers is at an all-time high, and whilst there remains some poor practice, RE teachers remain RE's greatest asset and their support its greatest priority.

e.      The place of RE within the public examinations system is many times better now than it was twenty years ago.

f.        The RE community is more identifiable, better organised and more articulate than ever before partly as a result of the RE Action Plan 2007-11 and the work of the RE Council.

g.       There is an overt swell of support for RE among policy makers, politicians, the media and many others which has never existed before, largely as a result of the E Bacc campaign in 2011.

h.      Many countries in Europe and beyond look to RE in England and Wales as an example of good practice and a source of inspiration.

A unique opportunity and challenge for RE

4.       It is very important not just to hold on to these positives but to be encouraged and inspired by them. Education is entering an unprecedented period of deregulation, diversity and change, in which the role of government and local authorities will diminish, and the role of private providers increases.  The National Curriculum and its assessment apparatus is likely to shrink. Accountability measures will remain, or even be increased in nature and complexity, to provide the tools by which parents can exercise choice of schools for their children. Responsibility for the curriculum, assessment, resources, staffing and training will increasing lie with schools, head teachers and governors, either independently or working in consortia. Responsibility for a subject's curriculum, pedagogical and resource development and support will lie with the subject community itself, requiring greater professionalism, effectiveness and efficiency among subject communities and associations.

5.       The ‘RE subject community' is very diverse but essentially united around the vital importance of RE for all children, young people and adults in Britain today. It comprises all those practitioners and educationalists in schools and colleges, institutions of higher education, professional associations and faith communities who have a shared interest in the provision of good quality RE for all children, young people and adults. The RE community has come a long way in the past few years, and buoyed by the confidence and success of past developments, it should turn current education changes into opportunities for consolidation and self-determination. The potential for working together which has clearly emerged from the varied responses to this critical time is itself crucial and must be further developed.

6.       The RE community, therefore, needs to become responsible for the subject of RE, and develop a mature and effective way of working that no longer depends on government or local authorities but on its own professionalism, confidence and resources. Of course, this does not preclude working with government, national or local, nor with other partners, and opportunities to do so need to be sought, but the RE community itself should be the custodian of RE's standards, ethos and success. So this is an exciting opportunity; but it is also going to be a real challenge.

How can opportunity be achieved?

7.       First the RE Community has to look forward not back. That does not mean it should not try to learn lessons from the past nor build on previous achievements. Clearly it must and would be foolish not to, but it cannot turn the clock back to some kind of golden age and expect to re-create that. The RE community must accept, for example, that Ofsted is not going to return to giving SACREs school RE reports again, though its subject monitoring role is expected to continue, nor will the government want to resurrect the 2004 Framework. They may be persuaded to do something else but it will be different from what has gone before. The RE community has to look ahead and adapt to the changing times.

8.       Second, the RE community is not used to doing things of itself. Since 1989, RE has developed within the context of a National Curriculum, national government initiatives to support it, local government articulations of these, and faith communities' developments. RE's aims, syllabus structure, pedagogical context have often been modelled from national initiatives, then locally modified and adopted.  These external developments have tended to provide a standard or yardstick around which the RE community has come, to work out its own parallel version, and this has provided a focus for unity and working together Indications are that government will have less interest in prescribing such things in future; schools will be expected to come to their own positions, and local government will count for much less if anything at all. So, the RE Community will need to work out its own way forward much more on its own, and provide the lead for others, rather than follow on, as it has tended to do in the past.

9.       Of course, nobody knows the results of the National Curriculum review, but there are indications from other subjects, and possible developments ahead, that the RE community will need to take into account. It might even be that the government will come to show some interest in RE and want to work with the RE community. But that will only happen if the latter can demonstrate that it is able to work in a united and professional way with faith communities, practitioners and professional and academic bodies acting together. 

10.   So, third, the RE Community has to work more closely together. That is a challenge! This will not be easy because in a time of financial cuts, competition for any funding that is available grows, and people naturally look to their own interests rather than those of others. This is not just natural but compelling for organisations when jobs are at stake, bottom lines look unhealthy, and influence diminishing. Two things, however, about our interests: all RE organisations' interests must be subservient to those of children, young people and adults, and of society. Their entitlement to good RE and the benefits it brings must be the over-riding concern. The second thing is  that individual organisations' interests are actually better served and prospects increased if they work together.

11.   Working together means working to an agreed strategy; it does not mean a Stalinist monolithic structure for the RE community which allows no space for difference or variation. How the RE community handles its differences is key. This is a theme very close to RE itself, of course; close to young people and their teachers helping them in the classroom to do just that; to SACREs, to inter faith relations, to the RE Council, and so to the whole RE community - how positively to handle difference. We have to model how differences are handled; not by pretending they are not there, nor by ignoring them, but by working with and through them to achieve the plural, respectful, constructive relationships needed for the common good.

12.   I cannot stress this too much for it is the biggest challenge and thus biggest risk we face - that of fraction and fragmentation. We have seen it before in RE, and see it also in other subject communities, history and English for example. We have our sincerely held different theories of RE (sometimes called pedagogies); we have our own faith allegiances, philosophical principles, favourite methods and practices, even different power bases and structures. If we do not harness these in a common endeavour, intent on a common and agreed set of outcomes, then they will become serious threats to the ability of the RE community to come through the critical situation we are in, and set the subject back decades, if not worse.

13.   "Unity in diversity" is illustrated by an orchestra. The instruments are different, and when played individually make different sounds. When played together using the same score, and in tune, co-ordinated by a conductor, they make a beautiful sound. The conductor makes no noise but enables the different instruments to make music, which is their only reason for existence.

14.   How is all this to be done in RE? All major faith communities, RE academic and professional organisations are members of the RE Council. The Council has worked with and through its members in the past to take forward developments in RE, notably the 2004 Framework and the RE Action Plan. Using the image of the orchestra, the REC is the conductor and the REC member bodies are the instruments. The RE Council is all of us in the RE community (note the change of person that has occurred in this paper), and we must, through the Council work out a new way forward for our subject. When we speak of the RE Council we should say "we" for, using another image, 'RE are us; REC are us'.

The RE Council and its strategic plan

15.   The RE Council has comprised all major faith communities and RE professional and academic organisations since 1973. With over 50 member organisations it has become the embodiment of the RE community. The role of the RE Council is to encourage commonality of purpose and a coherent approach to the support, development and practice of RE, working with and through its member bodies. The RE Council seeks to:

a.       Act as a national forum for all who share matters of common concern in promoting the highest possible standards of RE in all schools, colleges and universities RE

b.      Be a clear national voice for RE - for advocacy, support and improvement of RE

c.       Influence policy and liaise proactively with government and other national and international bodies on RE

d.      Promote a clear, positive image and public understanding of RE

e.      Represent at a strategic level the collective interests of member bodies in relation to RE

16.   Now with its own office and staff, and working with its members, the RE Council is establishing itself in the educational world, working with government, national and local, other professional groups, the media and others, to enable the RE community to become responsible for the subject, to develop a mature and effective way of working that no longer depends on government or local authorities but relies on its own professionalism, confidence and resources.

17.   On 21st September, the RE Council's Executive Board adopted a five year strategic plan for RE. This is available at http://www.religiouseducationcouncil.org/. The plan has five objectives all of which are designed to restate, renew or reinvigorate RE in England. It will succeed only if all constituencies within the RE community work with and through it. These objectives are:

a.       To promote high quality teaching, learning and assessment in RE

b.      To influence the development of public policy on and understanding of RE

c.       To promote a coherent professional development strategy for RE

d.      To secure adequate and sustainable resources for the REC

e.      To review the structures and operation of the REC.

18.   Each of these objectives will have a committee to take it forward and will be achieved by all of us in the RE Council contributing together. The committees will include key representatives of the RE community and its organisations. The first objective will be linked to the National Curriculum review and build on the work previously done by LAs working together in the Agreed Syllabus review collaboration, by the QCDA and by others.  The purpose will be the restatement of a convincing rationale for RE, a clear and manageable curriculum relevant to our times, with assessment processes and qualifications to match. A new REC Curriculum, Assessment and Qualifications Committee (CAQ) is to be established and oversee a project, a review of RE, to produce the basis for such a curriculum. The second objective will relate to the external relations of the Council, including government, other education groups such as heads and governors, SACREs, LAs, schools of all kinds, the public and the media. It will help establish the RE community as a publicly known and influential voice for the RE. There already exists a REC PR Committee, which will have the remit to achieve this objective. The third objective will build on the previous work of the RE CPD Round Table, the RE CPD e-Handbook, the new courses being developed by Culham St Gabriel's, RE Today's existing work and many other foundations to establish a more coherent and effective programme of CPD. A new REC Professional Development Committee  will be set up to help achieve this. The fourth objective is essential to the others for without a sound financial basis the RE Council cannot function as the voice of the whole RE community. A REC Resources Committee will look after this, and spearhead a fund raising strategy. The fifth objective is equally necessary as, currently, the RE community is not as efficient and effectively structured as it could and should be. A Governance Committee will head this up.

The RE community conference

19.   On 1-2 October 2011, two hundred members of the RE community were in conference together near Reading. Supported by the newly emerging Culham St Gabriel's Trust, a wide representation of those who have the interests and wellbeing of good quality RE at heart had the opportunity to discuss a wide-ranging agenda of issues that face us all and which relate to the RE Council and its strategic plan. Their findings will contribute to the implementation of the plan and help enable the RE Council to become an even more effective and broadly-based source of leadership for RE in England. The RE Council, seeking major funding from appropriate sources, will seek to empower RE organisations, faith communities, RE teachers and friends of RE to work together, not only to safeguard RE in this critical period but to improve further its provision and quality.

Conclusion

Despite recent setbacks, the importance of and need for good RE has not diminished, only increased. Even though systems are changing, the essential encounter between teacher and learner to deal with matters of faith and belief remains fundamental. Good RE has to involve good teachers, and all that we do has to enable them to be even better and raise standards of achievement higher still. Good teachers need good curricula, resources, support, advocacy and reward. The whole RE community must come together through the RE Council to put RE fully in place, in a professional, authoritative, coherent and confident way. There is much to do but much more to look forward to.