Supreme Court Northern Ireland religious education: Churches say reforms were needed

​The court ruled today that Christian religious education in Northern Ireland schools does not comply with human rights standards and is unlawful.

Dr Anita Gracie is deputy chair of the Transferors Representatives’ Council (RC), which includes the Church of Ireland, Presbyterian and Methodist Churches.

The TRC has statutory rights to maintain a Christian ethos in NI schools and appoint governors.

“We have known that the core [RE] syllabus is not fit for purpose in a more diverse society,” she told the News Letter.

They have been asking to revise it since the previous education minister was in office, she said.

She understands the current minister had been holding off doing this until the Supreme Court had given its ruling.

She acknowledged some people are concerned that the ruling could mean the end of the Christian message being shared in school assemblies. “We would obviously not be in favour of that,” she said.

But the TRC does believe the language used will have to change.

“We're very fond of the use of the phrase, 'Christians believe that',” she said.

“For example, 'Christians believe that God created the world and everything in it,' in contrast to 'God created the world and everything in it'.

“I think we still have the right to put forward the Christian message, to read from the Bible, to share Bible stories, to teach children that.

“What we don't have the right to do is to convince children into changing their own beliefs.

“I think each group should be allowed to put forward their own opinions and then leave it up to children and families, to take from that what they want.

“But we have to remember that 79% of people identified as Christian in Northern Ireland in the last census, so it is a small minority who doesn't want to hear anything about Christianity.”

RE classes should not be evangelistic but educational, she said.

“And I think if a school has a Christian ethos, they should be allowed to invite ministers in to share their beliefs in a very different way to how a teacher in a classroom would.”

Organisations like Scripture Union and Alpha should be free to work with children who opt in outside of class time, she added.

She has previously given evidence with other TRC members saying that the RE curriculum is some 20 years old and needs to be updated to help children make sense of such a changed world, and understand other worldviews. That is still the position of the TRC, she said.

It would be acceptable for teachers in secondary schools to share personal opinions with secondary school pupils in exchanges of ideas, she said.

She imagines that how this finally works out in classrooms will not please humanists – who she believes would prefer all faith taken out of schools – nor the “more evangelical and outspoken Christians” who are concerned that will not be allowed to pray or teach in classrooms.

The final outcome rests with the minister and who he appoints to update the curriculum, she said.

The TRC is currently drawing up a charter for Christian organisations which come into schools to sign up to, which would incorporate many of these principles, she added.