What is NIACT?
Back in 1988 a small group of Christian teachers in north-west Ulster began meeting to pray and discuss educational issues. Ten years later the name may have changed but there is still plenty for Christian teachers to do.
The Association of Christian Teachers (NW Branch) hit the road running holding a one day conference on the 4th of June looking at the “Proposals for Reform” of religious education in Northern Ireland. A response based on the feedback from the conference was drafted and forwarded to the Education Minister Dr Brian Mawhinney just four days later.
In 1990, the proposed RE Curriculum was published and ACT (NW), encouraged by the fact that some of the 1988 recommendations had been adopted, again responded suggesting that “the special nature of the NI communities would seem to us to require a basic Christian syllabus with a Biblical foundation.”
When the completed RE syllabus was then published in 1990 it contained a biblically based scheme of work. We owe a debt of gratitude to those who had the wisdom and foresight to ensure that we have an educational sound RE syllabus the envy of Christian teachers throughout the UK and beyond.
The educational focus has returned to curriculum review and once again RE is being debated. NIACT, as ACT (NW) has become, is not a lobby group and the views of members differ on many subjects. However, we do care enough to want to offer a reasoned and professional Christian perspective when responses are invited.
