Number of pupils taking Religious Studies GCSE continues to plummet

According to a new data, numbers decreased by 1.6 per cent between 2017 and 2018.

Less than half of English secondary schools now offer Religious Education at GCSE and just 237,862 sat the exam this year.

While all schools have a legal requirement to teach the subject, there are insufficient measures to hold them to account.

Chair of the National Association of Teachers of RE, Ben Wood says Religious Education is often viewed as an irrelevant subject.

“For a lot of schools, there is no real incentive to offer the subject if they don’t see it as important. So what we need to look at is how we can make sure RE fits the needs of the students we’ve got in this country.

“The subject has evolved considerably, I think, over the last 30-40 years and continues to do so.”

Entries for GCSE RS in England and Wales peaked in 2011 at 461,795.

Today’s figures show a decline in entries of over 42 per cent in eight years.

Wood suggested the government is responsible: “There’s a lot of pressures on schools in terms of getting everything into their curriculum. What we’re seeing is that a number of subjects are being squeezed out of time. Religious Education is one of them because the government is suggesting that students should see quite a narrow group of subjects. That’s the principal reason for this decline.”

Wood argues that RE offers valuable life lessons that help young people to…