Campaigners call for end to compulsory worship in Welsh schools
Nation.Cymru staff
A campaign group has called for compulsory religious worship in Welsh schools to be scrapped and replaced with inclusive assemblies.
Wales Humanists has urged the Senedd’s Children, Young People and Education Committee to examine the law on collective worship during the Seventh Senedd and consider legislative reform.
Schools in Wales are legally required to provide a daily act of collective worship. In schools without a religious character, this must be wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character.
Wales Humanists argues that the requirement is increasingly out of step with modern Wales and the approach taken by the Curriculum for Wales.
Under the curriculum, Religion, Values and Ethics (RVE) includes both religious and non-religious philosophical convictions.
The group wants compulsory worship in schools without a religious character replaced by inclusive assemblies where pupils could consider shared values, ethical questions, significant events and issues affecting their communities.
It has also called on the Senedd committee to examine pupils’ experiences of collective worship, arrangements for withdrawing children and whether the existing system is compatible with freedom of religion or belief.
The Welsh Government has committed to reviewing guidance on collective worship, but Wales Humanists says changing guidance would not address the underlying legal requirement.
The statutory requirement for collective worship in state schools dates back to 1944.
Kathy Riddick, Wales Humanists policy and campaigns manager, said: “Children should not have to choose between taking part in religious worship they do not share, and being separated from their classmates. Our schools should be places where every child can participate equally.
“Wales has already recognised the importance of representing both religious and non-religious beliefs in the curriculum. It is now time to bring our approach to school assemblies into line with those values.”
Wales Humanists is part of Humanists UK, a charity which campaigns on behalf of non-religious people.
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That… doesn’t gel with Welsh identity even I know that much. Though arguable the worship should be Druidism rather than Christianity, but even then Christianity is very much embedded in Welsh culture nowadays. Also there is Eglwys yng Nghymru (I am not sure how to pronounce this) which very much could use some support. Worth reminding that the UK has a state religion, it’s called Christianity. It’s a bit odd for State schools in a country with a nation religion, not to be teaching that religion. (Bit rich, since I got kicked out of RE class because I was a… Read more »
Neither Wales nor the UK has a state religion.
We are not that religious these days. how many chapels are now homes etc. Should be kept private unless a religious faith school. my daughter had to endure attempted brainwashing with RE, should fought back. Religion is personal, not government policy
There’s a touch more to religion than believing in fictional beings and it has a deeply communal interaction where it is near on impossible to organize society in other contexts. The collective shared suffering of: “We all had to sing hymns on Mondays” and “for some god forsaken reason we were all made to pray before eating” tends to be more formative than not. It doesn’t make people any more likely to be religious, but what it does create is unity. Heritage, shared identity, civic continuity, social function of ritual. The last I checked, schools still had Easter and Christmas… Read more »
Christianity is not the State Religion of the UK.
The UK is a secular democracy that allows Religious Freedom.
Remember doing this in school thirty years ago. I’m shocked that this is still happening in our schools when so few people follow it nowadays. Religion of any kind should not be forced on anyone, let alone our kids!
43% of us describe ourselves as Christian, more describe ourselves as at least Abrahamic. Back in 2001 it was about 70%. Over 50% of us describe ourself as religious in some way.
That’s not an excuse for using schools as conversion places, but it is an excuse for keeping hymns and prayers at school. Even if the kids are mumbling along and swapping out words. (We all did it).
No it isn’t.
Wales unlike England and Scotland has no established church. The Church in Wales not of Wales is the Episcopalian Anglican Church in Wales. The law was passed in a different pre devolution world. In my opinion there should not be faith schools either at least state funded. It should be possible to have a half day for those who want it to have Religious Instruction off site similar to what I believe happens in Italy. Those who do not want that or have no accepted place to have instruction can study enrichment subjects on that afternoon.
More of Church of England threw their dummies out of the pram. The Church in Wales inherited everything but the privilege… but Wales is primarily Methodist and Baptist anyway (which is why they threw the dummy).
would strongly support retaining broadly Christian collective worship in Welsh schools. In Wales, this is about more than religious observance. Christianity has been central to the history and development of our communities, our language, our literature, our chapels and churches, and our national culture. The Abrahamic traditions have also contributed significantly to the moral framework underpinning our society—compassion, justice, charity, forgiveness, human dignity and responsibility for others. Our schools should reflect the Wales we have inherited while preparing children for the diverse Wales they will live in. That does not mean forcing a child to believe. It means giving children… Read more »
I think the problem I have with it (as a Christian myself) is you could get into the case of having a Christian collective worship assembly, led by teachers who are not themselves believers, which I think is a bit of a farce.
“ . The Abrahamic traditions have also contributed significantly to the moral framework underpinning our society—compassion, justice, charity, forgiveness, human dignity and responsibility for others.”
None of the Abrahamic religions have a particularly outstanding record with any of those qualities. Neither do they, or any other religion have a monopoly on those qualities, which are perfectly able to be taught in a secular environment.
I was punished at school for refusing to sing hymens and to pray. That is what a collective act of christian worship demands. Atheists, agnostics, had to attend and were ordered to take part. Jews, Moslems and Catholics were exempt. I am all for a lesson where we are introduced to the history and beliefs of all belief systems including the non religious ones, but compulsory worship is indoctrination and is wrong in, what is today, a secular society.
I know it’s a typo but I did chuckle at ‘sing hymens’!
Stick “Jedi” on the options and see where it goes.
Religion has zero place in schools, in fact it shouldn’t be inflicted on those below the age of consent.
It’s bad enough that it’s anywhere near politics, but child abuse in the form of religious indoctrination is harmful to society.
The provisions of the 1944 Education Act regarding a religious element for school assemblies were an anachronism by the early 1960s when I first went to school.
A change is long overdue