Religious education in schools is outdated and should be replaced with a new subject: religion, belief and values, and the right of parents to withdraw their children from classes should be scrapped, according to the former Labour education secretary Charles Clarke.

Significant shifts in the UK since the Education Act 1944 mean changes to the way religion and belief is taught in schools to reflect modern Britain are long overdue, Clarke and his co-author Linda Woodhead, a professor in the department of politics, philosophy and religion at Lancaster University, say in a pamphlet published on Tuesday.

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