HC Deb 03 April 1984 vol 57 cc793-4
3. Mr. Peter Bruinvels

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what steps he intends to take further to encourage religious education in schools.

Mr. Dunn

Primary responsibility for the provision of religious education rests with local education authorities and with the schools themselves. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State and I will continue to emphasise the importance that we attach to this matter.

Mr. Bruinvels

I thank my hon. Friend for that kind answer. Will he give more encouragement and emphasis to the need for local education authorities and schools to give religious instruction very definitely and accurately? Is he aware that many parents in my constituency are greatly concerned that religious education in many multi-denominational schools is not being provided in accordance with the Education Act 1944?

Mr. Dunn

My hon. Friend is quite right. The 1944 Act requires religious instruction to take place in schools and governors have a responsibility to inquire whether it is taking place and in what form. If they feel that the headmaster and the staff are not carrying out the requirements of the Act they have the right to make representations to the Department.

Mr. Allan Roberts

Will the Minister congratulate his hon. Friend the Member for Leicester, East (Mr. Bruinvels) on his conversion to supporting peace studies in schools, especially such subversive dissertations on peace as the sermon on the mount? May I also welcome the Minister's own conversion to those peace studies which are traditionally enshrined in our legislation?

Mr. Dunn

I do not think that the hon. Gentleman is in a position to give Conservative Members lectures in divinity and theology.

Mr. Greenway

As we live in an age of video nasties and all sorts of other unpleasant pressures upon young people, is it not a scandal that we are short of at least 1,000 teachers of religious education and that 60 per cent. of the children in our schools are not taught by RE specialists? Can my hon. Friend do something about that?

Mr. Dunn

I cannot fail to take note of that robust invitation. The allocation of places for initial teacher training in 1983–85 was intended to secure an adequate supply of teachers of religious education within the total number of teachers being trained. That involved an increase in the proportion of entry places devoted to religious education. I hope that that reply goes some way towards answering my hon. Friend's point.