CR spoke with Richard Smart and Peter Kerridge

Richard Smart

The English Baccalaureate was introduced as a performance measure in the 2010 performance tables recognising where pupils have attained a C grade or better across a core of academic subjects, namely English, maths, history or geography, the sciences and a language.

According to the Department for Education, the reasoning behind the introduction of the English Baccalaureate was that, 'Since 2004 the number of non-academic qualifications taken up to age 16 has risen from about 15,000 to about 575,000, with a higher take-up of vocational qualifications by young people from deprived backgrounds. Many of these qualifications do not carry real weight for entry to higher education or for getting a job.'

This has caused some outcry from schools with concerns over a lack of consultation and also a belief that the new measure will lead to 'radical, and often controversial, changes in the curriculum offered by some schools'.

Among those concerned is Premier Christian Media who have spearheaded the R.E.ACT Campaign. Their main frustration is that Religious Education was excluded from this new programme despite its 'popularity, academic rigour and ability to teach young people about a range of faiths and beliefs'.

The Department for Education say that they, 'Don't want schools to restrict options to just this academic core or to force these qualifications on pupils for whom they are clearly not suitable.' However the R.E.ACT campaign remains concerned. To find out more Rebecca Duffett spoke with Richard Smart, the Marketing Director and CEO Peter Kerridge from Premier.

Rebecca: Why do you think RE is so important at GCSE level?

Richard: There are a number of reasons why it is really important. First of all is its popularity. We've got a subject matter that in the case of the entries coming into the subject has steadily grown from 1999 onwards to the present day. The reason is that it is something that affects their daily life, because they either have a faith themselves or they know other people in their society who do and they feel it's really important to understand not only their own faith but those of their neighbours. It's not only a subject which is very academically rigorous, but something they need to actually be effective in society and build a harmonious loving society. RE reaches out well beyond the school into our society and it's something that school pupils want to do. I think the second thing is, if they're not able to do it at GCSE because effectively, if it's not in the Baccalaureate head teachers will not support it or resource it and you won't be able to take it at GCSE, you then won't be able to take it at A level and it won't be used as an A level by universities for entering into university; so effectively in state schools, not including RE in the Baccalaureate will very largely mean seeing RE no longer taught as a serious subject in schools.

Rebecca: Do you think the Baccalaureate will stick around for the foreseeable future?

Richard: Yes, I think the English Baccalaureate is a good idea personally and I'm certain Mr Gove who's the minister responsible is a really good man who's trying to improve the standards of education in British schools. The sad thing about this is, it will narrow the agenda or the curriculum that these children can actually study and therefore it will lead to a narrower minded situation in schools. If we lose religious education from our schools we lose the relationships between people of different religions. That really is very dangerous for us as a society. This goes way beyond just education. It goes on into relationships with other people in society.

Rebecca: There's been criticism of the Baccalaureate that it suits only a certain type of child and perhaps RE would only suit a small minority who'd choose it too?

Richard: Yes I suppose you could say that. What I would say is that in the modules that people have to study there's lots of flexibility of which particular religion they're going to focus on including ethics; there's other aspects to this curriculum which are really important and there's lots of choice that children have in schools that we never had. The way RE is taught in schools is with a lot more flexibility than in my day.

Peter Kerridge

Peter: Our report which was titled, Bigoted Society teaches us that if young people aren't instructed about other religions nor have some insight into how people live their lives and the reasons why they do and say the things they do, then religious extremism is a distinct possibility because the understanding on which people make decisions just isn't there. So nearly three quarters, 71% of the British public believe that society will become more divided unless our young people are talking about different cultures and religions that make up the UK.

Rebecca: Let's talk about David Cameron's promise about petitions that get over 100,000 signatures will get a debate in parliament. Your R.E.ACT campaign petition received over 100,000 signatures. Do you think that he will stick by his promise?

Richard: We've actually spoken to Mr Cameron directly, which is fantastic. We know that he intends to keep his promise. I understand from government sources that it' going to take them some time to do this though. We've also got over a 100 MPs that signed an early day motion and it's very interesting the people who've signed this. Every single party that you can imagine in the United Kingdom and every part of the United Kingdom has got an MP that's signed up to this early day motion. I think that demonstrates the general concern across parliament and actually we've also got peers and bishops who are concerned about this; people like the Bishop of Oxford are very much involved. Also public personalities like Ann Widdecombe are particularly concerned about it. I don't think we'd be getting that reaction if there wasn't a very strong reason for its inclusion.

Rebecca: The signature petition went in last week, how effective do you think that's going to be?

Peter: We had six MP's from all parties standing outside 10 Downing Street. We handed in a petition of a 140,000 folk who had signed saying that they were concerned about this. We have had questions asked in the House of Lords and in the House of Commons. There's a huge ground swell of support for this from various faith leaders; lots of bishops, lots of denominational leaders from across the UK. How effective it will be depends on how much the government are listening, but there is certainly a loud voice coming, not only from the church, not just the religious leaders not just the politicians but the educationalists themselves feel that this is a bad move. It's only the politicians who think it's probably a good idea. So at this point, who knows? But what I can say is that we couldn't have worked harder to make folk aware that this is an issue that needs to be addressed.

We're trying to get David Cameron to fulfil that promise of a debate for petitions with over 100,000 signatures. The promise that was made in the run up to last election and they're saying that its taking a little while to organise, well you know I think a year's long enough. If they can't organise something in a year then there's something the matter with the way they organise things. It's definitely worth a debate and I'm sure that if it comes to a debate there would be MP's from all sides of the House who'd think that our position was the right one.

Rebecca: Do you think that education's the solution to solving divisions in society?

Peter: I think education has to play a part in terms of enabling people to understand where other folk are coming from. I think that's the first step. Then after that then the church itself in terms of this particular issue, in terms of religious education, the church itself needs to be making very public pronouncements about what it is that Christianity in a very special way can do for the good of the person and the good of the family, and the good of a town and the good of society. I think the church shouldn't be holding back on that because we have a great story to tell. Many of the great things that have happened in society have come because Christian men and women have made things happen. I don't think we should be quiet about that but we need to do it sensitively, we need to do it openly, we need to do it in a way of encouraging folk to enable Christians to share their faith publicly and deliver Mr Cameron's Big Society.

I think the religious education as it's currently being taught is a wide-ranging subject which does enable folk who are going through that course to see why it is people believe the things they believe. Religious education isn't Christian education and Christian education is probably best done by the church. The vast majority of the population don't go to church and to have all of that withdrawn from the curriculum and a curriculum which is basically saying that religion doesn't play a part in life is a dead end. It's crazy.