§ Mr. St. John-Stevasasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether he will list in the Official Report each local authority which has appointed full-time advisers in the subject of religious education.
§ Dr. BoysonThe appointment of advisers is a matter for the employing local education authorities and information in the form requested is not collected by my Department.
§ Mr. St. John-Stevasasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether his Department will undertake research into schoolchildren's attitudes towards religious education and into its effects of minimum provision of religious education on the educational credibility of that subject amongst, in particular, 14 to 16-year-old pupils; and if he will make a statement.
§ Dr. BoysonWe have no plans to undertake any such research. We have made clear, in "The School Curriculum" and elsewhere, the significance that we attach to religious education.
§ Mr. St. John-Stevasasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will consider seeking to amend the sections of the Education Act 1944 relating to school assemblies so that more flexibility, both as regards the frequency and the nature of acts of worship, might be possible in the future; and whether he will undertake discussions with the General Synod's board of education on this matter.
§ Dr. BoysonThe Education, Science and Arts Committee recommended in its second report, Session 1981–82, that the Secretary of State for Education and Science should begin discussions with all interested bodies, including the Church authorities, about guidance to schools on the school act of worship, and that these discussions should recognise that legislative changes might be necessary. My right hon. Friend is now considering the Committee's report, and will publish the Government's responses to its recommendations in the usual way.
§ Mr. St. John-Stevasasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether he will issue a circular to local education authorities stressing the importance of adequate provision for religious education in schools, at the level of in-service training, and in the release of teachers who wish in mid-career to obtain a religious education qualification; and if he will make a statement.
§ Dr. BoysonMy right hon. Friend has no plans to issue a circular to local education authorities stressing the importance of adequate provision for religious education. Local education authorities are responsible for determining the level of release for in-service training of all kinds having regard to the resources available to them.
§ Mr. St. John-Stevasasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether he will publish in the Official Report details of the certificates in religious 426W education being planned for the Church of England colleges of higher education; and whether there are any similar proposals to introduce such a course in all other colleges of higher education.
§ Dr. BoysonI understand that the Church of England colleges are still discussing the possible introduction of such certificates, which would be an option additional to the normal BEd or PGCE syllabus for intending teachers of religious education and teachers planning to work in Church of England voluntary schools. Certificates are already available at Chester college and at S. Katherines's college, a constituent part of Liverpool institute of higher education. The Catholic Teacher's Certificate is available on a similar basis at all Roman Catholic voluntary colleges. The provision of certificates in religious education at other colleges is a matter for colleges themselves to determine.
§ Mr. St. John-Stevasasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will introduce proposals to increase the availability of short courses of religious education for teachers of other specialities, either as part of initial training or of in-service provision.
§ Dr. BoysonThe content of initial teacher training courses is a matter for providing institutions and their validating bodies. The Government have no plans to encourage these institutions to include additional elements in their courses of professional training or to seek ways of increasing the provision of short in-service courses in religious education.
§ Mr. St. John-Stevasasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether he will estimate the percentage of religious education currently being taught by teachers with no professional qualifications in the subject.
§ Dr. BoysonI refer my right hon. Friend to my reply to his question on 11 March.—[Vol. 19, c. 480.] In maintained secondary schools in England and Wales in 1977 some 29 per cent. of the timetabled tuition in religious education which was provided by full-time teachers was by teachers with no qualification in the subject. Comparable information is not available for other types of school or for teaching of religious education outside timetabled periods.
§ Mr. St. John-Stevasasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what methods are adopted by his Department for the assessment of religious education in maintained primary and secondary schools in England and Wales; what criteria are used in making such assessments; and how this method of assessment compares with the assessment of other main school subjects.
§ Dr. BoysonIn their visits to county and certain voluntary schools Her Majesty's inspectors assess religious education, as they do other subjects of the curriculum, in terms of the appropriateness of the teaching to the age and maturity of the pupils. They also take into account the scheme of work in the subject, the resources available and their use.