Madrid blast to help recruit RE teachers

-22/3/04

Graphic pictures of the bomb attacks in Madrid are to be used to try to halt a decline in the numb

Madrid blast to help recruit RE teachers

-22/3/04

Graphic pictures of the bomb attacks in Madrid are to be used to try to halt a decline in the number of religious education teachers, by life’s big questions.

Scenes of Islamic terrorism will feature on recruitment posters, which will ask potential trainees: ìCould you explain why?î reports the Times.

Since 1996 the number of theology students entering university each year has dropped by 20 per cent.

In England the Teacher Training Agency had a recruitment target of 701 RE trainees last year, to be taken from a pool of 856 theology graduates. By October, only 581 had enrolled on courses.

Unless the agency can reverse the trend, the ageing cohort of RE teachers will start to vanish from schools. It accepts that its aim of recruiting nearly 80 per cent of all graduates will be almost impossible to reach, and it needs more students to study the subject.

Mary Doherty, the director of teacher recruitment at the agency, said that the volatile state of world politics had lent greater urgency to the search. ìIt is about answering the big questions for pupils, trying to make sense of all the grief, suffering and unrest in the world,î she said.

Madrid blast to help recruit RE teachers

-22/3/04

Graphic pictures of the bomb attacks in Madrid are to be used to try to halt a decline in the number of religious education teachers, by life’s big questions.

Scenes of Islamic terrorism will feature on recruitment posters, which will ask potential trainees: ìCould you explain why?î reports the Times.

Since 1996 the number of theology students entering university each year has dropped by 20 per cent.

In England the Teacher Training Agency had a recruitment target of 701 RE trainees last year, to be taken from a pool of 856 theology graduates. By October, only 581 had enrolled on courses.

Unless the agency can reverse the trend, the ageing cohort of RE teachers will start to vanish from schools. It accepts that its aim of recruiting nearly 80 per cent of all graduates will be almost impossible to reach, and it needs more students to study the subject.

Mary Doherty, the director of teacher recruitment at the agency, said that the volatile state of world politics had lent greater urgency to the search. ìIt is about answering the big questions for pupils, trying to make sense of all the grief, suffering and unrest in the world,î she said.