Almost 80 per cent of children do not know the true meaning of Easter, with a quarter thinking it is to celebrate the Easter bunny’s birthday, a poll has found.
The survey asked 2,000 parents across the UK and found 79 per cent said their children did not know the actual reason for the celebration.
A quarter think Easter marks the birthday of the Easter bunny, and more than 25 per cent believe it celebrates the date chocolate was invented.
Unacceptable
Earlier this month a group of MPs and Peers criticised the standard of Religious Education teaching in schools, calling it “unacceptable”.
A report from the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Religious Education found that one in four primary school pupils was being taught by teaching assistants.
And more than half of RE teachers in secondary schools have no qualification to teach the subject.
Detrimental
The results came from a survey of 430 primary and secondary schools by the APPG.
It found that 10 of the 130 secondary schools in the study were breaking the law by failing to teach RE to some pupils.
The report concluded it was “unacceptable” that primary pupils are being taught RE by teaching assistants, and “in many cases this has a detrimental impact on the quality of RE”.