§ Mr. MorganTo ask the Secretary of State for Education what proposals he has for the strengthening of the position of religious instruction in the national curriculum and of religious worship in the daily timetable of state schools; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. ForthMy right hon. Friend strongly supports the requirements, as statutorily defined, for all registered pupils at maintained schools to study religious education as part of the basic curriculum, and to attend a daily act of collective worship, subject to their parents' right to withdraw them from these activities.
The Education Reform Act 1988 reaffirmed religious education and collective worship as matters for determination by local, rather than national, bodies. I welcome the National Curriculum Council's support for the role of local bodies and its intention to monitor the additional contribution of the national curriculum to the general aim of promoting pupils' spiritual and moral development, set out in section 1 of that Act.