When Education Fails to Expand the Moral Imagination

In response to the abolishing of the bursary for secondary beginner teachers of RE, and the continued lack of funding for subject knowledge enhancement, this thought piece explores the deeper moral and ethical questions government and the education world need to ask themselves about the vital role RE plays in our society. 

A Crisis Hidden Behind Numbers

The Department for Education recently announced that trainee numbers in Religious Education have gone up[1]. On the surface, that sounds like progress. In truth, it masks a deeper crisis. The modest rise was driven almost entirely by a temporary £10,000 bursary re-introduced last year, a short-term fix for a long-term problem. Prior to that, recruitment targets for new secondary RE teachers had been missed in 11 of the last 12 years[2]. With the bursary now removed, along with funding for Subject Knowledge Enhancement courses, the structural gap remains unaddressed.

The consequences are immediate and far-reaching. Without that support, smaller university programmes will struggle to survive, fewer people from underrepresented backgrounds will train to teach, and schools will find it even harder to fill a subject that every pupil is legally required to study. The Catholic Education Service, which oversees more than 2,000 schools, has emphasised that RE is “the core of the core curriculum”[3]. Yet without sustained investment, schools are being set up to fail in providing the critical and reflective education that RE can offer.

A Space for Critical Thinking

RE is not just about religion. At its best, it helps young people think deeply about ethics, identity, and responsibility. It teaches empathy and opens up conversations about how we live together in a diverse society. When properly supported, RE can also challenge the narrow frameworks that have historically shaped how “religion” is understood in education, creating space for multiple ways of knowing and living. It can be one of the few places in school where students learn to question their assumptions and to see the world through other perspectives.

Who Is Most Affected

These possibilities depend on teachers who can hold that space with care and confidence and those who reflect the diversity of their pupils and understand the complexity of the communities they serve. Cutting bursaries and training support directly undermines this. The consequences fall most heavily on those already underrepresented in teaching, particularly candidates from minority, faith-based, and lower-income backgrounds who already face structural barriers to entering the profession[4].

In 2024–25, 83.2% of teachers in state-funded schools were White British, compared with 71.8% of the working-age population[5]. Restricting access to RE training only widens that gap, narrowing the range of voices students encounter and limiting their exposure to teachers who reflect the diversity of their own experiences. In a country still grappling with questions of representation and belonging, these are the very voices that bring depth, understanding, and lived experience into the classroom. However, when classrooms cease to reflect the society they serve, education itself is weakened, stripping it of the moral depth that gives it purpose.

The Narrowing of Moral Imagination

These cuts are not isolated, nor are they neutral or accidental; they form part of a broader pattern in which the state determines what knowledge is valued and who is permitted to teach it. Limiting access to subjects like RE and narrowing diversity in the teaching workforce shapes whose voices are heard, which ideas are legitimised, and how society understands itself. The withdrawal of support for RE teachers is a clear example of this narrowing of moral imagination. In this systematic pattern, public narratives around minority communities are carefully managed, allowing social tensions to fester while shaping wider perceptions of these groups. As a result, subjects that encourage critical thought, ethical reasoning, and engagement with difference are systematically deprioritised. Education, in this context, ceases to nurture enquiry and becomes a mechanism for controlling thought.

Overall, every closed course, every lost bursary, and every teacher prevented from entering the profession reduces the space for curiosity, ethical reflection, and engagement with difference. When moral reasoning and critical engagement are systematically deprioritised, young people are denied the opportunity to fully develop the capacity to think ethically, act responsibly, and understand perspectives beyond their own.

Protecting RE and the teachers who deliver it is therefore more than defending a subject; it is about safeguarding the kind of thinking that allows a society to understand itself and supporting it remains essential to ensuring that our schools reflect the plural realities of modern Britain.

The Impact of Narrative Control

The timing of these cuts is particularly alarming. In a country increasingly marked by religious and race-related tensions, the logic to invest in teachers who can help students understand difference, question prejudice, and build bridges of understanding would seem clear. Instead, the government has withdrawn the very supports that makes such work possible.

This decision signals that developing empathy and moral awareness is less important than controlling which narratives are permitted. The opportunity to expand these critical skills is not only being missed, but also being deliberately foreclosed with the government sending a clear message that engaging with difference is optional. Instead, uniformity and control are privileged over curiosity and ethical reflection. The consequences are far-reaching and extend beyond schools as it shapes the society that students will grow into and will one day lead.

Every teacher who holds space for honest discussion about justice and humanity resists the idea that education exists only to reproduce the status quo. Defunding RE undermines that work and represents an act of narrative control. It limits not only what children learn, but how they learn to see one another, affecting what the next generation will know, question, and care about. The question is not simply whether we can afford to fund RE, but whether we can afford to lose the moral vocabulary that helps us see each other as human.

A Call to Responsibility

The stakes are clear. Education is not simply a matter of filling jobs or meeting targets. It is about shaping the values, understanding, and ethical capacities of the next generation. Policies that limit access to key subjects and restrict diversity in teaching are not neutral decisions. They determine whose voices are heard, whose stories are told, and how society itself will understand itself in the years to come. If we care about the future, we cannot ignore these choices. Protecting subjects like Religious Education and supporting the teachers who deliver them is essential not just for schools, but for the kind of society we want to live in.

The government must recognise that cutting bursaries for RE is a choice with profound consequences for the moral and ethical development of young people. Investment in RE teachers is an investment in the ability of young people to think critically, engage ethically, and navigate a diverse world with empathy. Beyond financial support, there must be a commitment to valuing RE as a core part of the curriculum: protecting smaller university programs, incentivising recruitment, and creating pathways that encourage diverse candidates to enter the profession. The future of social cohesion, understanding, and moral reasoning in our schools depends on these actions. Supporting RE is not optional; the choices made today in education will define the citizens of tomorrow and our collective moral future.

[1] https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/initial-teacher-training-census/2024-25

[2] https://ctlc.blogs.bristol.ac.uk/2024/09/25/where-will-the-religious-education-re-teachers-come-from-supporting-a-new-generation-of-re-twos/

[3] https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/267135/religious-education-experts-bursary-cut-is-huge-blow-to-catholic-schools-in-uk

[4] Ethnic diversity in the teaching workforce: evidence review – NFER

[5] School teacher workforce – GOV.UK Ethnicity facts and figures