Why Religious Education (RE) matters for every child; this isn’t really about the bursaries.

By Dr Rachael Jackson-Royal, Exams and Higher Education Officer, King Edward VI High School for Girls; Member of the NATRE Executive

RE matters for every child as it helps them to ‘make sense of a complex world where aspects of religion and non-religion hold different places in the lives of its citizens’ as well as encountering ‘ancient and living traditions that have shaped the world’ (Deep and meaningful? The religious education subject report – GOV.UK). Indeed, a recent survey of the British public showed there is public support for learning about the areas. For example, 69% believed it was important to understand the beliefs of others (with 63% of employers considering it important to understand other people’s beliefs in the workplace) and 71% agreed that the role of RE should be to foster a better understanding of different beliefs and 65% that the subject has an impact on pupils’ comprehension in this area (Religion & Worldviews Survey 2021 revised).

High quality RE provision also matters for every child. The Opportunity For All white paper (Opportunity for all – Strong schools with great teachers for your child) identifies that ‘being taught by a high quality teacher can add almost half a GCSE grade per subject to a given pupil’s results’ and that the ‘quality of teaching is the single most important factor in improving outcomes for children.’  Shulman and others (see Pedagogical content knowledge | ELT Journal | Oxford Academic for a good summary) have argued, high-quality teachers are discipline experts, i.e. having what he calls excellent pedagogical content knowledge: subject knowledge and pedagogical subject knowledge (how evidence informed teaching strategies can be adapted so it meets the needs of the subject).

However, not all pupils are receiving high-quality RE. The 2024 Deep and Meaningful subject review of the discipline identified that ‘strong teacher subject knowledge’ in RE and ‘access to professional development’ which will enable this to occur is not found in many schools. For example, it reported that the ‘overwhelming majority [of teachers] had not received any subject based professional development’ and that, since the previous report in 2013, ‘teachers’ subject knowledge had not improved’ as the ‘legacy of poor subject and pedagogical knowledge, scant training and lack of clarity about RE content [has meant that] in too many schools, the RE curriculum is poorly constructed, poorly implemented and poorly learned. What pupils know and remember about the subject is notably patchy’ (Deep and meaningful? The religious education subject report – GOV.UK). In addition, many pupils do not have subject experts teaching them RE. The latest DfE school workforce census data indicated that only 42.2% of qualified teachers involved in RE had a relevant post-A-level qualification, compared with 76.7% in History, 65.3% in Geography and 57.2% in Physics (Explore and download data – School workforce in England – Explore education statistics – GOV.UK). Furthermore, NATRE have reported that the ‘latest teacher recruitment data reveals a stark divide in the classroom: most subjects backed by significant government funding are thriving, while those without financial support are seeing dramatic decline in interest’ and that ‘nowhere is this more evident than in Religious Education, which has seen a 25% drop in training offers for the 2026-27 cycle compared to the previous year’ (Bursary cut leads trainee teachers of RE to fall by a fifth so far this year, but help is available – NATRE). Such a situation is not found in those subjects which offer a bursary (e.g. Physics is now exceeding its government targets, unlike RE which is recruiting less than 2/3rds of its target according to the same NATRE report). Thus, a lack of fully funded courses is also negatively affecting a pupil’s ability to receive the high quality RE they deserve.

High quality RE matters for every child but for this to occur, specialists who have genuine expertise in religion, belief and worldviews must be teaching the subject. This is why if we are to realise the goal that ‘every child will be taught by an excellent teacher’ by 2030, trainees for secondary RE need both a bursary and, where relevant, a subject knowledge enhancement grant (Opportunity for all – Strong schools with great teachers for your child).