Scrapping RE teacher training bursaries ‘short-sighted’ says Humanists UK

The UK Government’s decision to scrap teacher training bursaries for Religious Education (RE) has been criticised as ‘short-sighted’ by Humanists UK.

New Department for Education (DfE) guidance for 2026–2027 confirms that bursaries will be available only in selected subjects with no available bursary for RE. The DfE’s move comes despite Ofsted’s 2024 subject report, Deep and meaningful? The religious education subject report, which identified that:

‘Over half the schools visited used non-specialist teachers to teach RE. In the majority of these schools, teachers had not had any subject-specific professional development. These teachers did not have the training that they needed to be able to develop their subject knowledge (content knowledge) or to teach subject content (pedagogical content knowledge).’

A call for higher bursaries for RE teacher training to improve the subject as a whole while also supporting teachers to teach non-religious worldviews, was included in Humanists UK’s response to the Curriculum and Assessment Review. The response also called for RE to be brought into the National Curriculum and taught in a consistent, broad, and balanced manner in all state-funded schools regardless of religious character.

Humanists UK’s Education Campaigns Manager Lewis Young said: 

‘Scrapping RE bursaries is a short-sighted move. The Government’s own inspectorate has set out how much better RE needs to be, yet this decision will make it harder to recruit and train the specialist teachers who deliver that improvement.

‘In a society where most young people are non-religious and our classrooms are increasingly diverse; pupils need accurate, critical, and inclusive teaching about religions and non-religious worldviews. Cutting bursaries sends exactly the wrong signal and risks undermining standards and inclusion across the curriculum.’