Education Inspections Bill: Northern Ireland Humanists back stronger scrutiny of RE

Northern Ireland Humanists have welcomed ‘long overdue’ proposals to end the special exemption that prevents inspectors from examining religious education (RE) in the same way as other school subjects.

The Education Inspections Bill aims to bring inspection arrangements for RE into line with other areas of the curriculum. Responding to the Northern Ireland Assembly Education Committee’s call for evidence, Northern Ireland Humanists said the reform was ‘necessary’. However, it also warned that effective inspection will require proper guidance, training, and a clear focus on children’s rights.

Clause 2 of the Education Inspections Bill would remove the current requirement for the Education and Training Inspectorate (ETI) to obtain agreement of a school’s Board of Governors before inspecting RE. Northern Ireland Humanists strongly supports the change, arguing that there is no justification for a statutory subject to be uniquely shielded from independent scrutiny.

The reform is particularly important following the Supreme Court’s judgment in JR87, which found that the religious education and collective worship a non-religious child received were not objective, critical, or pluralistic.

The proposals also come as the Department of Education consults on a new RE Core Syllabus. Northern Ireland Humanists has welcomed significant improvements in the draft. But it also warned that humanism remains marginalised, that Christianity retains a privileged ‘core’ status, and that pupils are not guaranteed substantive teaching about non-religious worldviews. It has therefore argued that effective inspection will therefore be essential to make sure that every school actually delivers the new syllabus in an objective, critical, and pluralistic way across every school.

However, simply removing the exemption will not be enough. Northern Ireland Humanists’ response also calls for ETI inspectors to receive appropriate training and for clear inspection criteria to be published setting out how schools will be assessed. It has also urged the Education Committee to seek assurances that inspections will consider four things: whether RE is objective, critical, and pluralistic; whether it is inclusive of humanism; whether it respects of pupils’ and parents’ freedom of religion or belief; and whether schools rely withdrawal instead of offering rights-compliant teaching.

Commenting on the proposals, Northern Ireland Humanists Coordinator Boyd Sleator said:

‘There is simply no good reason why RE, a statutory part of every child’s education, should be subject to less independent scrutiny than any other subject. This is especially important in light of the JR87 ruling, which highlighted the failures in the way RE was taught in Northern Ireland. Giving inspectors the powers to look properly at what is happening in classrooms is therefore a welcome and long-overdue step.

‘But changing the law is only the start. Inspectors need to be suitably trained and given refreshed guidance to allow them to properly assess whether schools are genuinely respecting freedom of religion or belief and giving proper attention to the treatment of both religious and non-religious worldviews.’