RE Research Findings Call for Reform of How Bible is taught

As in a majority of the Christian countries in the world, the education system in Britain has included the Religious Education (RE) curriculum because of the traditional link between churches and schools in the era of Christendom. However, the controversy over the RE curriculum in British schools has been stirred up in the recent years, and this has occurred in parallel with a widespread secularisation and rising of non-Christian faith across Europe.

According to the Church Times, the findings from the research project called Biblos, a partnership between Exeter University School of Education and the Bible Society, showed that the RE curriculum in British schools is programming children with secularist values.

The Professor of Religious Education at Exeter University, Terence Copley, head of project Bibilos said that the education system in the UK is under the rising influence of secularists, and that the RE curriculum has been used for the promotion of a secularised worldview.

Professor Copley pointed out that the secularisation process of RE has taken the divine out of religion since the 1960s and 1970s. After that, Christianity has being taught as just one of several religions and worldviews instead of the one truth in the world. In addition, the cultural importance of Christianity for British heritage has been ignored.

The third report of the project suggested that 93 percent of schoolchildren read or hear passages from the Bible only in RE lessons. However, researchers claimed that most of the RE teachers were unfamiliar with the Bible, so they usually interpret the Bible narratives into moral tales. They also fear accusations of indoctrination or think students would be bored if the narratives were told straight, according to the Church Times report.

Schools should focus on the long-term shortage of primary and secondary school RE specialists, Biblos report said.

In the research, more than 1000 pupils, in nine schools nationwide, were asked to name and describe a Bible passage of their choice and suggest a meaning for them. For the biblical story "David and Goliath", most students think that it preaches about courage, no matter how small you are, you should believe in yourself and fight bravely.

The report concludes, "Secularisation of biblical narratives, which excludes God as ‘the hero’, does not constitute a non-indoctrinatory approach to the Bible, but merely a new form of secular indoctrination."

The Church of England’s RE spokesman, the Revd Dr John Gay, said to Church Times, "This is a wake-up call to the Churches and the RE world, and calls for an overhaul in how Christianity is taught."