This petition was submitted during the 2015 to 2017 Parliament
Rejected petition Make GCSE Philosophy and Ethics/Religious Studies an optional subject
Rejected on
Having this subject mandatory is just unnecessary extra stress for year 11 students and it is unfair that they're expected to learn all this extra stuff which won't have any use in most of their lives. It should be a subject that they choose to do, not one that's chosen for them. Not many need it.
Why was this petition rejected?
It’s about something that the UK Government or Parliament is not directly responsible for.
Ethics and philosophy are not compulsory subjects at GCSE. You can find out more about which subjects are compulsory here:
https://www.gov.uk/national-curriculum/key-stage-3-and-4
Schools can decide to make certain subjects compulsory. You could raise this issue with your school's governing body.
If you'd like RE to be made optional in years 10 and 11, you could sign this petition:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/179720
We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.