Religious education in secondary schools: 1750 heads of RE express their views

Report

This survey was conducted in summer 1994 among heads of RE in English and Welsh state maintained and independent secondary schools. 1,750 responded giving an overall response rate of 36.5%. The number of schools did not respond as they had no clearly designated head of RE. One stark result was that 38% of independent schools and 53% of state-maintained schools spent less than £1 per pupil on RE. The very large majority of schools [91%] made use of BBC and/or Channel 4 Schools broadcasting materials designed for use in RE, the normal practice being to videotape the material for flexible later use. Additionally, 80% of the schools also used general broadcast material not specifically designed for school use. Staffing issues were also examined including the number of teachers with RE qualifications, their age profile, and the type and areas of in-service training they would welcome. A further section invited teachers to look forward over the following three years and identify the most important factors which they associated with improving the quality of RE. The top priority was for more specialist teachers, and the second priority was for the provision of more and better teaching resources. Other wishes included more time for the subject, the need to raise its status, and more coherence and stability about what should be taught. The final section looked at ways of improving the quality of RE, and it was a very rare here to find much optimism expressed by the teachers.

Authors: Gay, J; Greenough, J; Kay, B; Lord, E

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Not peer reviewed
• Publisher: Culham Educational Foundation
• Publication date: 1995-01-01
• Language: English
• Keywords: capitation; FFR; religious education; teachers; broadcast curriculum material; in-service training; staffing; questionnaire