London, England, Oct 15, 2025 / 06:00 am

A leading English Catholic religious education teacher has criticized the removal of a bursary for those training to become religious education teachers, warning that the cuts will affect both the mission and leadership of Catholic schools.

Currently a person training to become a religious education teacher receives a bursary of 10,000 pounds (just over $13,000), but the U.K. government announced on Oct. 7 that the figure would be reduced to zero for the year 2026-2027.

Religious education teacher and author Andy Lewis, assistant principal at St. Bonaventure Catholic Secondary School in London, told CNA he believes the move will have a “huge” impact on the ability of Catholic schools to recruit specialist religious education (RE) teachers.

“Ther

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