HL Deb 30 October 1986 vol 481 cc899-900WA
Lord Ritchie of Dundee

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether, in view of the complexity of the situation facing head teachers in multi-faith schools regarding religious education and worship, they will consider a review of the relevant provisions of the Education Act 1944 in the light of the situation obtaining in 1986.

Baroness Hooper

The report by the Education, Science and Arts Committee of the other place,Achievement in Primary Schools, recommends amending the law to permit more flexibility in the arrangements schools make for collective worship. We shall give careful consideration to all the recommendations of this important report. The provisions in the Education Act 1944 as respects the agreed syllabus for religious instruction already enable local education authorities, where they have not done so already, to reconsider the appropriateness of their existing syllabus in the light of the needs of particular groups of pupils and changes in the society in which pupils are growing up.