The added value of religious education for students in a secular society

Interreligious study day for teachers in Roman Catholic and Islamitic Religion

Today’s political and public debate are critical towards religious education in Flanders. With both proponants and opponants voicing their opinions, the debate has become devided and polarised, with little attention for those who really mater: the students. Youngsters today live in a very different context than before. Where religion used to be part of all aspects of life (choice of school, youth movement, health insurance, etc.), today it is much less entangled with the life of young people. Societal trends like secularisation, depillarisation and migration have caused a reshaping of the religious life, showing more personal and individual expressions of religion.

This cultural turnaround is strongly sensible in religious education. In our schools, we see students with distinctive profiles: from liberal and atheïst students to students with a pronounced religious identity. Religious education has to be relevant for each of these students to positively contribute to society. Though, it remains difficult to appoint and express the added value of our religous courses, to ourselves and to our students. During the interreligious study day ‘The added value of religious education for students in a secular society’, we think and discuss together about this added value. What do we want to achieve with religious education? How can it help students to face the challenges of today’s society? And what is the added value of students engaging in religious education for society as a whole?

This study day is organised by UCSIA in collaboration with the inspector-advisors Roman Catholic and Islamitic Religion.

This study day is organised in Dutch.