Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of including humanism as part of the national curriculum on religious education.

The department recognises that non-religious worldviews, including humanism, can play an important role in supporting pupils’ understanding of beliefs and values. Religious education (RE) is not part of the national curriculum but is a mandatory subject for all pupils aged 5 to 18 in state-funded schools in England. Schools should deliver RE in an objective, critical and pluralistic way and already have the flexibility, through their locally agreed syllabuses, to include the study of non-religious world views such as humanism.

The department welcomes the Curriculum and Assessment Review’s recommendation that Vanessa Ogden, a former review panellist specialising in RE, should lead a sector group, independent from government, to develop a draft RE curriculum. We expect that the sector group’s work on RE will reflect the role the subject plays in building understanding between people of different faiths, beliefs and communities, including those with non-religious world views. If the group reaches consensus on a draft curriculum, the government will consult on whether to add it to the national curriculum.