Apart from the usual rhetoric (and several typos!), it seems to offer nothing new:
Anyone any suggestions who may be suggesting the latter?Secular voices are vociferous in their demands for a “religion-free” state education. Some even suggest that education should be “values-free”.
In Roman Catholic denominational schools, teachers undertake particular responsibilities - as catechists - to form pupils in a particular faith tradition, according to the wishes of parents and guided by the Church.
...and there the sentence peters out!It is clear to us that Religious and Moral Education is one area of the curriculum which can provide vital experiences and outcomes for all children. Indeed, we would argue that its role in the curriculum is all the more significant at a time of increasingly diverse attitudes towards religious belief and practice across the world. For, where many young people are not being introduced to religious beliefs and practices and philosophical enquiry at home, where else will they be challenged to consider the ‘great’ questions, about the origins of life and human destiny? How else will they be enabled to consider the Christian traditions of the Scottish nation and the enrichment brought to our society by people of the other great faith traditions? For these reasons, we value the continuing statutory guidance on the provision of religious and moral education and religious observance in
You have to wonder if this is so important for the 'religious, spiritual and moral formation', why the other churches aren't clamouring for the same as the RC church.In Roman Catholic denominational schools, which see themselves as ‘communities of faith and learning’, such partnership with the local parish, with the active participation of parents and families, is an essential component in the religious, spiritual and moral formation of young people.
That's ripe considering there are a lower proportion of underprivileged children in religious schools than there are in non-denominational schools.Education needs to serve the marginalised and the underprivileged.
Non sequitur alert. Why should these links be a necessary factor in providing 'effective' RO?Many school communities have long-established links with local churches, evident in the effective contribution of local religious leaders to the provision of religious observance and worship in schools. We see the strengthening of these links being vital to the healthy development of school education.
I could go on, but all-in-all, this just seems to be a bit of posturing by the various churches, but I do have to wonder what their thinking (if any) was behind the need for this at this juncture.
