Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what his policy is on (a) non-Christian festivals such as Eid and Diwali being recognised more in state schools and (b) allowing non-Christian students to get a legal holiday for their religious festivals.

Schools play an important role in preparing pupils for life in modern Britain. This involves supporting pupils to understand the society in which they grow up and teaching about respect for other people and for difference. All schools are required to actively promote fundamental British values, including mutual respect and tolerance for those of different faiths and beliefs.

The government does not specify how schools should teach religious education or the topics that religious education must cover. State funded schools either follow a locally agreed syllabus for religious education or design and deliver their own curriculum. This leaves them free to recognise or teach about non-Christian festivals if they choose to.

The Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006, as amended, sets out that schools should treat a pupil’s absence as authorised if it is on a day exclusively set apart for religious observance by the religious body to which the parent belongs.

The department does not define which specific days schools should authorise for religious observance, though generally, it may be a day when the pupil’s parents would be expected by the religious body to which they belong to stay away from their workplace in order to mark the occasion. We advise schools to seek advice from the relevant religious body if they are in doubt.