HL Deb 20 June 1968 vol 293 cc846-7
LORD SORENSEN

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the second Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

[The Question was as follows:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress has been made in encouraging knowledge of world religions among pupils in the higher classes and forms of our schools; and whether representatives of such religions have been approached with a view to providing competent exponents and informative literature for this purpose.]

BARONESS PHILLIPS

My Lords, it is for the school authorities and the teachers to decide whether their pupils should be taught about world religions and what methods and materials to employ. But many secondary schools include a study of world religions in their non-specialist courses for sixth forms and often also in their studies of history, geography and religious instruction, and there is little doubt that the presence of immigrant children in many schools has done much to arouse greater interest in the religions of other countries than our own.

LORD SORENSEN

My Lords, I thank my noble friend for that reply. May I ask whether she appreciates that, as there are now quite a number of other non-Christian religions practised in this country as well as a considerable diversity of Christian religions, and also that both in the Commonwealth of Nations and in United Nations all kinds of religious faiths are there confessed, it is desirable that we should try to encourage sympathetic understanding of these faiths among the higher grade pupils in our schools? Will she give me a reply to the last part of my Question, where I suggest that there should be some conference of representatives of the various religions in this country for this purpose?

BARONESS PHILLIPS

My Lords, I have, of course, every sympathy with my noble friend, but I am sure that he will have heard the debate yesterday when we discussed the freedom which the universities must have, and I think that he would be the last to suggest that the Secretary of State should give directives to the school authorities and to the teachers. Many teachers and school authorities already make reference to the leaders of the other religions to which my noble friend has referred, but we have no real record of the extent of this. I know that there is a great deal of interest in this, and this will naturally increase with the increasing number of non-Christian children coming into the schools.

LORD SORENSEN

My Lords, does my noble friend appreciate that there is already a directive regarding one religion? Therefore, could not the Government encourage an understanding of other religions?

BARONESS PHILLIPS

My Lords, I will make this point to my right honourable friend the Secretary of State. I should not like to enter into a debate with my noble friend at this time, but as we are a supposedly Christian country it seems reasonable that we should teach the Christian religion in our schools.