Religious education experts: Bursary cut is ‘huge blow’ to Catholic schools in UK

London, England, Oct 15, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

A leading English Catholic religious education teacher has criticized the removal of a bursary for those training to become religious education teachers, warning that the cuts will affect both the mission and leadership of Catholic schools.

Currently a person training to become a religious education teacher receives a bursary of 10,000 pounds (just over $13,000), but the U.K. government announced on Oct. 7 that the figure would be reduced to zero for the year 2026-2027.

Religious education teacher and author Andy Lewis, assistant principal at St. Bonaventure Catholic Secondary School in London, told CNA he believes the move will have a “huge” impact on the ability of Catholic schools to recruit specialist religious education (RE) teachers.

“There is huge concern about the impact of this decision,” Lewis said. “It now requires an even greater commitment to decide to train as an RE teacher — and for some, that will be a step too far financially. For Catholic RE, it further compounds the current issue that schools have: a lack of specialists in Catholic RE.”

In the Catholic schools of England and Wales, religious education is prioritized by the Catholic Education Service (CES) as “the core of the core curriculum,” and at least 10% of the curriculum is dedicated to the subject. The CES represents the national education policy of the bishops of England and Wales for the 2,169 Catholic schools, colleges, academies, and universities in England and Wales.

However, despite the high standards of teaching religious education, there are still some Catholic schools whose RE departments are not fully staffed and where the subject is taught by non-RE specialists.

Lewis, who has authored religious education textbooks and helped develop a new religious education qualification with support from the CES, told CNA that “a lack of bursary when recruitment challenges remain significant is detrimental to the RE community as a whole.”

“We are struggling to attract people into the teaching profession in general, and while there are real shortages in science and maths teachers, such disparity is a source of great frustration,” he said.

The cuts are also expected to affect both the mission and the leadership of Catholic schools.

CES has proposed a vision for students in Catholic educational environments “to flourish,” stating in November 2024: “It is an understanding that we are all made in the image and likeness of God, gifted with an inherent dignity, and graced with a transcendent purpose to realize God’s love on earth. In the daily life of a school, this dignity and purpose is manifest in a pedagogical approach which seeks to engender a holistic formation of the person so we may realize life in all its fullness in mind, body, and spirit.”

Lewis believes the bursary cuts will affect this mission. “This makes the job of delivering the Religious Education Directory (RED) and meeting standards of the Catholic School Inspectorate (CSI) even tougher — while just attempting to fulfill our mission as Catholic schools and ensuring every student gets an authentic and high quality standard of RE.”

Meanwhile, Paul Barber, director of the Catholic Education Service, who blasted the government for its “failure to meet religious education teacher recruitment targets for most of the past decade” in an Oct. 10 statement, said he believes the cuts will harm leadership vacancies in Catholic schools.

“Many Catholic school headteachers will have also begun their careers as RE teachers. Any national shortage of teachers, which would of course include in RE, therefore has a corresponding impact on the number of applicants for Catholic school leadership vacancies,” Barber said, adding: “This is a disheartening decision when there is a clear need for more RE teachers.”

Looking forward, Lewis called upon the entire “Catholic community” to work together to explore ways of finding more RE teachers. “It does feel there needs real action in this area,” he said. “But it is clear there just isn’t the funding. It is a question for the Catholic community: How do we seek those who are able to teach Catholic RE and encourage them to come and work in our schools?”

The CES is currently working to increase the number of religious education specialists by introducing a new postgraduate certificate in religious education — a collaboration between the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton and St. Mary’s University in Twickenham, London.