A ‘postcode lottery’ of religious education means some students are receiving a tokenistic education that is ill-equipped in helping them take their place in modern Britain. This was the warning sent to Gillian Keegan this week by a cross-party group of over 30 MPs and peers.
As Chair of the Religious Education Council of England and Wales, the body representing a unique coalition of over 60 national organisations, I was delighted that there is such support for our subject. We recently celebrated our 50th anniversary, an event that saw everyone from the Bahais to the Zoroastrians gather in London to mark our achievements over the past half-century and share our visions for the future.
With this anniversary also came the need to reflect on how the nature of faith and belief has changed since 1973. We are often told that religion is declining in Britain, with the latest census results revealing that the number of people reporting ‘no religion’ had risen by seven million since 2011.
