A poll by YouGov(educational data starts on page 15) shows that Religious Education (RE) is seen as either ‘not very important’ or ‘not important at all’ by 58% of British people.
In the UK, RE is a mandatory subject and it’s clear most people see it as increasingly irrelevant. Most of us who suffered through these lessons know they’re not really about educating someone about religion, they’re stealth christianity lessons. I can’t recall one RE lesson as child where we discussed any other religion or the basis for religion at all.
I personally wouldn’t mind RE if it were not just christian indoctrination under the guise of education. If pupils were taught about a wide range of religions and non-religions and non-theistic religions. At least it would be interesting then.
It astounds me that some people don’t want their children to be taught the basics of religions. How will you understand the 16th and 17th centuries if you don’t understand the Protestant Reformation? How will you understand the Reformation without understanding the basic hierarchy of Catholicism? Religion is extremely important to world history and to understanding even the most basic events for almost all of history.
I don’t think anyone is saying that learning about religion in context is a bad thing. There’s nothing wrong with learning about Papal supremacy prior to the Reformation or people like Wycliffe within the context of how a nation and/or culture evolved. And if that was how students in the UK did learn about religion I think more people would find it educational and interesting but that’s not how it’s taught. In my day it was just more evangelism dressed up as education and from all I’ve read that’s still pretty much the case.