The Times | Thursday 22 December 2011 | Letters

If the Prime Minister is serious about religious values, he should ensure that RE stays on the curriculum at all levels.

Having underlined the significance of the religious dimension in underpinning personal and communal values, David Cameron is in the ironic position of having an Education Secretary who appears to be dismantling the very school subject committed to teaching about these issues.

Already Michael Gove has left RE out of the English Baccalaureate; last week he put two-thirds of the secondary RE university teacher training courses at risk of closure, and has so far failed to include RE in the review of the school curriculum.

A new year's resolution by Mr Gove to reverse the downward spiral in RE would still be in time.

John Keast
Chair of the Religious Education Council of England and Wales