Written question WQ97717
- Asked by
- Sam RowlandsConservative
- To be answered by
- Cabinet Secretary for Education
- Tabled
- Due
- Answered
- Time to answer
- 10 days
Question
What action is the Cabinet Secretary taking to address the decline in the number of trainees completing secondary initial teacher education in Religion, Values and Ethics (RVE), which has fallen from 25 in 2014 to 11 in 2024?
Answer
Answered by Cabinet Secretary for Education
The latest figures from the Education Workforce Council
ITE Results show that 20 students were awarded Qualified Teacher Status in Religious Education in 2024/25 which is an increase from the figure of 11 in 2023/24.
We recognise that whilst this increase is welcome recruitment to our required allocation levels in Religious Education remains challenging.
We have set up a working group with WASACRE and other partners to explore the opportunities available to ensure that there are sufficient numbers of suitably qualified RE and RVE teachers available to deliver the Curriculum for Wales. This will include ways of supporting ITE Partnerships to attract more entrants to RE programmes and how we can provide other parts of the humanities workforce with the skills and knowledge to be able to deliver RVE in the curriculum.
As part of this we have worked with partners to develop a a suite of modules to support practitioners across the workforce with the changes to religion, values and ethics (RVE) (formerly Religious Education), within the Curriculum for Wales.