UK Supreme Court rules Northern Ireland's religious education requirement unlawful: Tantamount to 'indoctrination'

The U.K. Supreme Court has ruled that the current approach to religious education (RE) and collective worship in Northern Ireland schools breaches human rights and is unlawful.

The court reached its verdict based on the view that the present curriculum doesn't approach the subject in an "objective, critical and pluralist manner."

The judgment was handed down on Wednesday after a father and daughter — who cannot be named for legal reasons — challenged how RE is being taught in Northern Ireland schools.

The family became concerned after the girl, named only as JR87 in court documents, started praying before meals at home. When asked about it by her non-religious parents, she told them she had been taught to do this at her primary school, which she attended between the ages of 4 and 7. Her parents then approached the school because they didn't want their daughter to be taught that Christianity was an absolute truth. The school told them they were following the core syllabus for RE.

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