The UK Supreme Court has ruled that the current approach to Religious Education and collective worship in Northern Ireland schools breaches human rights and is unlawful.
The court reached its verdict based on the view that the present curriculum does not approach the subject in an "objective, critical and pluralist manner".
The judgment was handed down on Wednesday after a father and daughter - who cannot be named for legal reasons - challenged how RE is being taught in Northern Ireland schools.
The family became concerned after the girl, named only as JR87 in court documents, started praying before meals at home. When asked about it by her non-religious parents, she told them she had been taught to do this at her primary school, which she attended between the ages of four and seven. Her parents then approached the school because they did not want their daughter to be taught that Christianity was an absolute truth. The school told them that they were following the core syllabus for RE.
The father and daughter originally won their case at the High Court in Belfast, which ruled in 2022 that the way RE and collective worship were being taught did not meet the requirement to be “objective, critical, and pluralist.”
Additionally, the court found that the rights of JR87 and her father, named only as G, were breached - specifically the right of parents to have their children educated “in conformity with their own religious and philosophical convictions” under the European Convention on Human Rights, and Article 9 of the convention which protects freedom of thought, conscience, and religion.
The 2022 judgment also found that the right of withdrawal was not a sufficient remedy to the problem because it placed a burden on parents, and children could be stigmatised.
The Department of Education for Northern Ireland successfully appealed the High Court ruling last year, but JR87 and her father appealed to the UK Supreme Court which has now overturned that verdict in favour of the 2022 judgment from the High Court in Belfast.
In its judgment on Wednesday, the Supreme Court said that the failure to deliver RE in a way that is “objective, critical, and pluralist" is tantamount to "indoctrination" - the court said it used the word "indoctrination" as "a synonym for evangelism and proselytising devoid of any negative connotations".
It also said that the case was "not about secularism in the education system".
"No one is suggesting that religious education should not be provided in schools in Northern Ireland," the judgment reads.
"Rather, JR87 and G strongly support the provision of religious education provided it does not amount to indoctrination."
It continued, "Secondly, this case is not about whether Christianity should be the main or primary faith that pupils learn about in schools in Northern Ireland.
"Historically and today, Christianity is the most important religion in Northern Ireland. It is within the Department’s margin of appreciation in planning and setting the curriculum for the greater part of religious education to focus on knowledge of Christianity."
DUP MP Carla Lockhart said she was "disappointed" by the judgment but that her party would "remain steadfast".
"Christian teaching and values have long been part of school life in Northern Ireland, and we will continue working to ensure they are protected," she said.
The Catholic Bishop of Derry, Donal McKeown, who is also chairman of the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools and a former headmaster, told the BBC he was not surprised by the judgment and that he was "quite sanguine" about the prospect of the nearly 20-year-old curriculum being revised.
He has some questions, though, about the implications of the judgment: “Will there be a difference in terms of applications of the legislation in maintained schools and controlled schools?
"In other words can a Catholic school assert the right to teach a certain theology and expect parents to buy into that?"
He added, "I'm quite open to seeing where this goes but I think I wouldn't want it to be seen as some kind of statement that religion should be banned in schools."
The NI Department of Education states that RE is "a compulsory part of the Northern Ireland curriculum" that must be provided in schools according to the core syllabus.
That syllabus was drawn up in 2007 by the four main churches in Northern Ireland - the Catholic Church, the Church of Ireland, the Presbyterian Church, and the Methodist Church. The core syllabus has a Christian focus and parents "have the right to withdraw their child from part or all of RE or collective worship".
