8th December 2015 6:00
By Blue Tutors
The High Court of England and Wales has ruled the omission of non-religious world views from the school curriculum to be unlawful. The court has announced that the education secretary made “an error of law” in leaving “non-religious world views” out of the new Religious Studies GCSE. Mr Justice Warby said that the government has a duty to ensure that the curriculum reflected the pluralistic nature of the UK. The GCSE is Religious studies is intended to provide student with understandings of all beliefs, religious and secular.
The changes to the Religious Studies GCSE prioritised several forms of Christianity in addition to major world religious, and failed to address non-religious views. The changes sparked complaints from twenty-eight religious leaders, including the Archbishop of Canterbury. Religious leaders warned that the course was too narrow, and did not reflect the social and cultural experience of the UK today. Three families, backed by the British Humanist Association, successfully argued in court that the government has skewed the Religious Studies GCSE in a way that was detrimental to students. The British Humanist Society called the ruling a triumph, noting that parity should be given to humanism as an example of a non-religious world view.
Despite the victory for those who criticise the new GCSE, the government has maintained that the GCSE does prepare students for life in modern Britain. The department for education issued a statement saying that the GCSE ensures that pupils understand a diverse range of beliefs, and will help to promote understanding and tackle segregation. They claimed that the judgment will not affect the content or standing of the GCSE and the current curriculum would continue to be taught in schools for now. They concluded that they would need to study the judgement further before deciding how to proceed.