Northern Ireland’s schools told to continue providing RE based on ‘holy scriptures’

Following a U.K. Supreme Court ruling which found that religious education (RE) and collective worship in Northern Ireland schools have failed to comply with human rights law, Minister for Education Paul Givan has issued guidance to school leaders insisting that “both Religious Education and collective worship continue to be a legal requirement,” and that the judgement has not struck down existing legislation. The court recently upheld a 2022 ruling by the High Court in Belfast that religious education and Christian worship were not conveyed in an “objective, critical and pluralistic manner” and therefore breached the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). A child, known as JR87, and her father sought a judicial review after she took part in non-denominational Christian religious education and collective worship as part of the curriculum at a controlled primary school, a common form of state-funded school, in Belfast. Her parents “did not wish her to be taught that Christianity was an absolute truth” and in 2019 voiced concerns that their daughter’s education “did not appear to conform with their own religious and philosophical convictions.” Givan has said he will provide further “legally sound” and comprehensive guidance to schools in the coming weeks, and that his department has “requested further legal advice to understand the full implications of the judgment.”