“The choices made today in education will define the citizens of tomorrow and our collective moral future.”—Maryam Bham for RE:Online
“Teaching religious education pluralistically is more radical and exciting than setting one or other parameters on each other’s beliefs in order to approach them educationally.”—Daniel Moulin, The Conversation
In July 2024, the UK Government instituted a Curriculum and Assessment Review. Examining what is taught at schools in England and how, the reviewers sought opportunities for incremental improvement, premised on Joseph Schwab’s concept of “the Practical”.
Nationalising RE?
The Review recommendations were published this week. For Religious Education, the main recommendation was establishment of a new task & finish group with the goal of determining if RE should be added to the National Curriculum—rather than retaining its peculiar place as a statutory subject with no fixed content—and whether it could be effectively renamed. The latter acknowledges an ongoing campaign for a so-called “Religion and Worldviews” curriculum.
Daniel Moulin leads training for future Religious Education specialists at the University of Cambridge. Writing in The Conversation, Moulin argues for a bottom-up plurality that authentically represents Britain’s religious diversity. He concludes:
“Teaching religious education pluralistically is more radical and exciting than setting one or other parameters on each other’s beliefs in order to approach them educationally. It has to be open to completely opposing accounts of reality and the possibility of our knowledge of it. This allows for something of much value in education – the development of minds that can hold and weigh up contradictory accounts at once.
“However, it can only be achieved by a curriculum that assumes no overarching narrative itself. Instead, it must fairly represent and interrogate the deep differences that actually characterise religious diversity in the real world.”
Bursaries end
Meanwhile, specialists have already received bad news:
In 2024, Government responded to a longstanding shortfall in trainee recruitment by reintroducing an RE bursary, providing 10,000£ towards the living expenses of those entering the profession. But after a brief recruitment boost, the bursary has been abandoned. Courses are closing, and the capacities of teachers to navigate this subject meaningfully will further reduce.
The impact of such decisions is unequal. In all likelihood, the diversity of those entering training will reduce, and with it the lived expertise. In a comment piece published in RE:Online, Cambridge PhD student Maryam Bham explains:
“In 2024–25, 83.2% of teachers in state-funded schools were White British, compared with 71.8% of the working-age population. Restricting access to RE training only widens that gap, narrowing the range of voices students encounter and limiting their exposure to teachers who reflect the diversity of their own experiences.”
The way ahead
While Religious Education bodies gather to consider what comes next, we ponder with Schwab, Moulin and Bham:
What incremental innovations could help to build capacity for good Religious Education? Is there a particular role for those in the inter-religious research space? How can non-specialist teachers gain confidence and skills to do RE well?
Further reading
Read Daniel's comment piece in full: Making RE part of the national curriculum will promote tolerance – but only if it’s taught in the right way (via TheConversation.com)
Read more from Maryam: When education fails to expand the moral imagination (via REOnline.org.uk)
A longer article from Daniel Moulin, Using Schwab to reform the Religious Education curriculum in England, is available to read in the Oxford Review of Education (via TAndFOnline.com).
DOI: 10.1080/03054985.2025.2573261
Note: This news item was updated on 17 November 2025 to include a link to Moulin’s ORE article, just published.