Your report of the 12,000 GCSE religious education short-course entries (TES, August 22) says that the short course is a step towards breathing life back into the subject. But RE isn’t dead. Full-course GCSE RE numbers rose again this year, while all other humanities subject entries fell. The short course simply provides a route to GCSE qualification for all pupils where an hour a week is given to key stage 4 RE, as Dearing recommended. An old excuse for poor RE - that it leads to no certification - has been removed.
L A T BLAYLOCK
Professional Council for Religious Education Victoria Street, Derby
