Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee 16 December 2025 [Draft]
The Scottish Greens accept that, in many ways, the situation that we have in Scotland in which, as you outlined, we have such denominational positions, is almost unique. Although denominational schools exist, we need to have very clear mechanisms for ensuring that children and young people’s rights are protected, regardless of where they go to school. It is the principal position of the Scottish Greens that we should have a total separation of church and state.
The 1980 act conflates religious observance with religious education, also called religious instruction. Religious observance comprises those acts of worship when one faith is prioritised. Religious and moral education—RME—is quite different. Learning about diverse religions and belief systems is an essential part of a broad education in a diverse society. Children and young people have a right to a well-rounded education, and their parent or guardian should not be able to override that. Young people cannot withdraw or be withdrawn from maths, science, history or English. That is for good reason—those subjects provide key knowledge bases and the skills that young people need to be successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors to society, as the curriculum for excellence wants them to be.
Religious and moral education is similarly vital in our view, and teachers agree. Dr Douglas Hutchison of the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland said:
“religious and moral education should be seen as a curricular subject in the same way as any other subject.”
He continued:
“the idea that in a liberal democracy there is no place in the curriculum for religious education and there should be a right to withdraw from it does not make sense in 2025.”—[Official Report, Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee, 7 October 2025; c 27.]
I am aware of the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland’s queries about how some of the amendments are worded, particularly in relation to the word “instruction”. The commissioner refers to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child’s general comment 20, which distinguishes between religious education and “religious instruction”, and states that there should be a right to withdraw from the latter, not from the former. The wording of amendment 9 was worked up collaboratively with the Scottish Government—for which I am grateful—but, ultimately, it reflects the original language of the 1980 act, and, as a consequence, the bill’s approach of amending that language rather than the alternative approach of re-legislating, which is proposed by the commissioner. I share some of those concerns about language, but I ask the committee to support the principle of my amendment 9 and its consequential amendments. I will work with the committee and others if we need to fix any wording for stage 3.
I move amendment 9.