It is a truth universally acknowledged that religious studies is a bore, a complete waste of time and entirely unnecesary - or so we are conditioned to assume.

Religious Studies is a vastly underestimated subject, so much so that it is not considered a humanity by the English Baccalaureate, which requires a GCSE in a science, Maths, English and a humanity - however the only two humanities considered are History and Geography, despite the fact that RS too is in fact very much a live and kicking humanity, in addition to those two. In the past, RS curriculums for most had consisted of only a study of religious teachings and beliefs, and this was generally an in depth study of Christianity. However, recently the RS curriculum has been entirely revolutionised. For students who are studying Religious Studies at GCSE today, under the AQA examination board, the RS curriculum is arguably more vast than ever before.

Although 50% of the course is based on the religious beliefs, teachings and practices of followers of two faiths, which perhaps sounds like the more traditional religious education, these two can be chosen from any of the six world faiths, which really gives students the opportunity to find out about religions that they may have known nothing about previously, or alternatively to grasp a more in depth understanding of their own faith. The other half of the AQA course is perhaps more ethics based; it is known as thematic studies and students explore four of six different, very broad themes, two examples being Religion, Peace and Conflict and Religion, Crime and Punishment. As part of the thematic studies students learn about very topical, highly contested issues such as abortion, euthanasia, the death penalty and the use of WMD to name just a few, and are encouraged to not only explore religious viewpoints of their chosen faiths for the first paper, but explore the topics in great depth and see how other faiths respond too, and often to see how followers of the same faith can have completely different opinions, to challenge their own beliefs and also explore non - religious arguments.

It is for this reason that many schools have now chosen to make the Religious Studies short course GCSE compulsory, in which the grade is split in the same manner as the long course but with slightly less depth, but those students can then choose to opt for the long course instead if that interests them - this is because many schools have begun to realise the knowledge of the world and thinking skills that religious studies as a subject can teach to young people. However equally so, as government funding has been cut short for state schools, many schools that are suffering financially have had to, ‘prioritise’ their subjects, and in fact Religious Studies (which has several different names at A Level depending on exam boards) has stopped being offered at certain schools despite widespread interest from students, simply because schools can not afford to pay the teachers - and so whilst RS is flourishing in some schools, it is being brushed aside by others, perhaps in particular by certain high performing schools who would rather have all of their students achieve the English Baccalaureate by taking one of the, ‘proper’ humanities of History and Geography, than to make RS compulsory for all of their students. 

However, if we as a society stopped casting aside Religious Studies as a non - facilitating subject and began to appreciate the universal appeal it can have as a subject in so many areas due to its breadth, and began to open our minds more, we would in fact be creating a new generation of young people with the knowledge and understanding that RS would teach them, and these young people could be the leaders of the next generation.