NI Education Minister backs ‘scriptural’ RE and collective worship despite ‘indoctrination’ Supreme Court ruling

Northern Ireland’s Education Minister has responded to last week’s JR87 UK Supreme Court judgment by saying that religious education (RE) teaching will continue to be based upon ‘Holy Scriptures’ and that Christian collective worship will also continue. The Court held that the RE syllabus and collective worship are not conveyed in an objective, critical, and pluralistic manner, and that teaching and worship therefore amount to indoctrination. In an Assembly debate this week, the Minister in fact said that the ruling should be an opportunity to make sure schools are doing collective worship – thus suggesting he hopes the amount of worship in schools will now increase, rather than anything else.

Northern Ireland Humanists has said the Department must now comply fully with the judgment and make sure that all children receive a broad and balanced education.

During the debate, Education Minister Paul Givan MLA, of the DUP, argued that Christianity will remain central to the ethos of controlled schools. The Minister also claimed that a parent’s right to withdraw their child from collective worship ‘should not trump the rights of the overwhelming majority’. However, the Supreme Court found that the opt-out process places an undue burden on parents, risks stigmatising children, and makes the right theoretical rather than effective.

The Minister also wrote about the judgment for the News Letter. In that he explained that ‘there is already a legal requirement that this religious education is based upon the Holy Scriptures’ and suggested that this should continue. But the judgment was clear that education law is incompatible with human rights law. So the Minister should recognise that this ‘Holy Scriptures’ requirement may now have to go.

He also said ‘There are those in Northern Ireland who are involved in fighting a cultural war… HumanistsNI [sic] openly claim that they have been working on the issues addressed by this judgment for 10 years.’

Northern Ireland Humanists Coordinator Boyd Sleator said:

‘We are not fighting a culture war. We are fighting for equal treatment for the non-religious.

‘Children deserve an education that respects their freedom of religion or belief, that teaches them about the beliefs of others, and that helps them explore their own. This should be true for those across all major religions and humanism. They should not have a system that evangelises to them. The judgment was clear, and so should be the direction of travel for Northern Ireland.’

The Minister confirmed that an upcoming curriculum review will include a public consultation open to ‘everybody, including atheists and humanists’. Northern Ireland Humanists will participate and encourage its members and supporters to do likewise.