This petition was submitted during the 2017-2019 parliament
Rejected petition Children shouldn't be forced to take Religious Education as a GCSE subject.
hello, I go to a Catholic Secondary School, and am coming to the point that I'm thinking about my future.
I am being made to take GCSE R.E as a compulsory subject. I, however, am not religious and do not plan on taking a job involving theology.
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Taking a GCSE in R.E will limit my career options and will not allow me to take a third GCSE of my own choice.
Many children in my situation face the same struggle, and will not be able to pursue a dream job that requires other GCSE that we are prevented from taking.
Can we be asked to prevent ourselves from pursuing our own personal education because we are being obliged to take this as a GCSE?
This petition was rejected
Why was this petition rejected?
It’s about something that the UK Government or Parliament is not directly responsible for.
We can't accept your petition because this is a decision for the school and not the UK Government or Parliament.
Schools are required to teach religious education by law but it is up to them whether they offer it as a GCSE or require pupils to take it.
You can find out more about which subjects are required GCSEs by law here:
https://www.gov.uk/national-curriculum/key-stage-3-and-4
You could start a new petition calling on the Government to change the law so that schools cannot require pupils to take specific GCSEs if that is something you would like to see happen.
We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.