A COURT JUDGMENT about religious education in Northern Ireland has been described, falsely, as being a ban on Christianity in schools.
The court recently found that the religious education must be more balanced compared to the current system which endorses Christianity, but did not forbid the teaching of Christianity in schools, or religious worship in schools (though it did say this should not be mandatory).
Stormont’s Department of Education has since said that schools should continue teaching religion based on “holy scriptures” and that collective worship was still legally required.
However, some have portrayed the court’s judgment as being far more extreme.
“Breaking! Supreme Court Rules Christianity in Schools is Unlawful!” the description on a video posted by Niall McConnell to Facebook on 19 November reads.
“The Supreme Court in the North of Ireland have just ruled that teaching Christianity in schools is unlawful,” McConnell says to camera. “Keep Christianity in our schools.”
That video has been viewed more than 39,000 times, according to figures on Facebook.
The video ends with an appeal to sign up for a “gold membership” to Siol na hÉireann, an anti-immigrant group led by McConnell. According to the group’s website, membership costs €119 a year.
The Journal has previously debunked posts by both McConnell and Síol na hÉireann that have spread false claims.
The syllabus
The current religious education state syllabus in the North was drafted by the jurisdiction’s four major Christian churches. The syllabus for six- to seven-year-olds begins with Learning Objective 1: The Revelation of God.
It says: “Pupils should begin to develop an awareness, knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the key Christian teachings about God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit), about Jesus Christ, and about the Bible; and begin to develop an ability to interpret and relate the Bible to life.”
Throughout the syllabus, “scriptural references are given as a guide” and lessons in the modules include titles such as “the Bible is the word of God” and “The Annunciation by the Angel Gabriel to Mary – Luke 1:26-38”.
The other major learning objectives include “The Christian Church” and “Morality”, the latter revolving tightly around a Christian worldview and involving lessons on “respect for God”, “the values of God’s Kingdom”, and the Ten Commandments.
At Key Stage 3, which covers the first years in secondary school, a fourth learning objective is introduced: “World religions”, though this is dropped again for Key Stage 4.
Schools in Northern Ireland are also required to engage in daily “collective worship”. These requirements are backed up by law, which specifies that while “Holy Scriptures” must be used in education, schools should not endorse “any particular religious denomination”.
The Supreme Court judgment
However, the future of this syllabus, as well as the place of Christianity in schools, was questioned following a Supreme Court ruling last week.
The non-religious parents of a student at a Belfast school initially took a legal challenge against their child’s school, but later against the legality of the school providing a “Bible-based” religious education and the practice of collective worship.
The case began in 2019, but has been through courts and an appeal since then.
Last week, Northern Ireland’s Supreme Court gave a judgment that sided with the parents, reiterating the findings of previous hearings that the religious education and collective worship “were not conveyed in an objective, critical, and pluralistic manner”.
The court specifically found that the school giving pupils a “right to withdraw” from such education or activities was not enough to make it legal.
“There is no commitment in the core syllabus to objectivity or to the development of critical thought,” the judgment read. “To teach pupils to accept a set of beliefs without critical analysis amounts to evangelism, proselytising, and indoctrination.’
However, the court’s judgment also makes it clear 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,” it said.
The judgment also noted: “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.”
The judges found that there was a “complete absence of plurality in relation to the teachings or practices of any other religions or non-religious traditions and philosophies” in the initial stages of the syllabus.
However, the judgment said that it was reasonable for the “greater part of religious education to focus on knowledge of Christianity”.
Although the judgment may mean that it’s more likely in the future that children are going to be taught about various religious traditions, it also means that this can happen alongside a strong primary focus on Christianity.
In a letter to schools, Paul Givan, the Minister of Education, said that they were seeking legal advice on how they should proceed and would issue further guidance in the coming weeks.
“My Department is already reviewing the overall school curriculum for the first time in
almost 20 years, it is therefore timely to reform the RE syllabus,” he wrote. “Any revised syllabus will provide academic rigour and relevance.”
Religious figures have been amicable about the decision.
“Northern Ireland has changed a lot since the last core curriculum was put together and I think it is certainly a time for a revision of what we teach and how we teach as the core curriculum,” Bishop Donal McKeown told BBC News NI.
So, while the judgment is significant and likely to spur a change in how religious education is taught in Northern Irish schools, it does not ban either the teaching or the practice of Christianity in Northern Irish schools.
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