This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Religious Observance Review Group report
14/05/2004
The report of the Religious Observance
Review Group is published today.
It makes a number of recommendations
which will inform future guidance on religious observance
for schools.
Education Minister Peter Peackock
said:
"The approach to religious observance outlined in
the report is one which can be embraced by all schools
within our broadly Christian society. It recognises
other cultures, faiths and beliefs but will not
undermine the Christian ethos which exists in many of
our schools.
"I have commissioned the development of support
materials for schools which will help them transfer the
recommendations made by the Group into practice and in
particular to achieve an appropriate approach which
reflects the needs of the school community. In due
course I will ensure a revised circular is issued to
all schools."
Dundee City Council education director
Anne Wilson, who chaired the Religious Observance Review
Group, said:
"Schools have an important role to
play in the spiritual development of young people and it is
my belief that my Group's report will assist them in taking
forward this task."
The Religious Observance Review Group
was set up in late 2001 by Jack McConnell, then Education
Minister, to look at the current religious observance
guidance and prepare recommendations for the future.
An HMIE report published in 2001
(Standards and Quality in Secondary Schools: Religious and
Moral Education 1995-2000) pointed out that two out of
three non-denominational secondary schools did not provide
sufficient time for religious observance and suggested that
arrangements should be reviewed. The most recent guidance,
from 1991,
recommends that religious observance should
be at least weekly in primary schools and monthly in
secondary.