Threat to RE in Catholic Schools

Briefing. Ofsted reports that RE in non-Catholic schools is poorly taught. Their policy recommendation is that RE content should be determined by the National Curriculum, which would catch Church schools in its net. Ofsted's view of RE seems to be primarily as a tool of social engineering, to increase 'social cohesion', which seems to involve teaching Christian children about the bad things Christians have done and the good things non-Christians have done, to foster 'understanding' in the wake of Islamic terrorism. This fatuous approach may have the result that imparting knowledge of the Faith in Catholic schools very difficult.

The use of the National Curriculum to promote goal of social policy at the expense of education is exposed systematically in a new book from the think-tank Civitas, reviewed on the Hermeneutic of Continuity here.

From the Catholic Herald (in part): Oona Stannard, chief executive of the Catholic Education Service, said she would be 'concerned' if the Government followed Ofsted's recommendation and introduced a national curriculum for RE.
She told BBC Radio 4's Sunday programme that the CES would fight to "preserve the rights of our bishops under canon law to determine our [RE] syllabus."