Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: THE Christian religious education taught in schools in Northern Ireland is unlawful, the UK Supreme Court has ruled, reported BBC. In a unanimous judgement the UK’s top court allowed an appeal by an unnamed father and daughter from Northern Ireland.
In 2022, the High Court in Belfast ruled that the Christian-based RE taught at primary schools in Northern Ireland was unlawful. However, the Department of Education (DE) subsequently won an appeal against that judgment.
The Supreme Court on November 19 unanimously allowed the father and daughter’s subsequent appeal and dismissed the Department’s crossappeal. The father and daughter challenged the legality of the teaching of RE and the practice of collective worship in the primary school which she attended between the ages of four and seven.
The proceedings involved points of law which affected those involved in this case as well as the teaching of RE and the practice of collective worship more generally in Northern Ireland. The Supreme Court backed the original High Court judgment from 2022 which held that as both RE and collective worship in the school followed the core syllabus specified by the DE – they were not conveyed in “an objective, critical, and pluralistic manner”.
The court said the judgment “was not about secularism in the education system” and made clear that “no one is suggesting that RE should not be provided in schools in Northern Ireland”. The court said, “The family strongly support the provision of religious education provided it does not amount to indoctrination.”
