The new religious education syllabus for Northern Ireland “perpetuates the subject’s historic bias towards Christianity”, the National Secular Society has warned. Responding to a consultation on reforming the RE core syllabus from the Department of Education (DoE), the NSS said the decision to prioritise Christianity as the “core element” of the new syllabus risked making RE insufficiently objective, critical, and pluralistic, contrary to the consultation’s terms of reference. The NSS raised particular concerns about content that “blurs the line between academic study and worship”, such as requiring pupils to experience “exploring” religious practices including “prayer”. It also highlighted the syllabus’s claims that it will support pupils to recognise the “positive contributions of religious and non-religious worldviews to society”, whilst making no mention of any negative effects. The NSS welcomed the expansion of teaching about non-Christian and non-religious worldviews, although cautioned it does “not go far enough”. It called for inclusion of specific teaching about secularism as a political idea relating to religion and belief. In November last year, the UK Supreme Court found NI’s current …