Did the U.K. make Islam the "main study" in schools on March 26, 2025? No, that's not true: No credible media outlet reported such a policy. Religious education covering different religions has been part of the national curriculum for decades, and students can opt out of attending those classes.
The story appeared in a post (archived here) published on Facebook on March 25, 2025. It opened:
As of Tomorrow in the UK, all Primary & Secondary school children age 9 to 16 must learn about Islam as a main study.
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Wed Mar 26 14:30:12 2025 UTC)
A search across Google News for the keywords seen here (archived here) did not show any credible reporting about Islam supposedly being designated as the "main study" in the U.K. on March 26, 2025.
In the U.K., schools are obliged to offer religious education (RE) classes, but they are optional. The government website (archived here) describing the national curriculum reads:
Schools have to teach RE but parents can withdraw their children for all or part of the lessons. Pupils can choose to withdraw themselves once they're 18.
A spokesperson for the U.K.'s Department for Education confirmed to Lead Stories via email that, as of March 26, 2025, this is still accurate.
As a structured subject, religious education has existed in U.K. schools for decades (archived here). In its present form, the class is not exclusively focused on Islam.
The most recent non-statutory guidance on the matter from the U.K.'s Department for Education was published in 2010 (archived here), for Agreed Syllabus Conferences (ASCs), the group that sets up religious education curricula. It reads (archived here):
Every locally agreed syllabus must reflect that the religious traditions of Great Britain are in the main Christian, while taking account of the teaching and practices of the other principal religions represented in Great Britain.
The law does not define what the principal religions represented in Great Britain are. ASCs can decide which are the principal religions represented in Great Britain, other than Christianity, to be included in their agreed syllabus.
Another Department's document from 2015 (archived here) that describes the content of the class echoes that:
... all specifications must require students to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the fact that:
• the religious traditions of Great Britain are, in the main, Christian
• religious traditions in Great Britain are diverse and include the following religions: Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism, as well as other religions and non-religious beliefs, such as atheism and humanism...
The website of the Religious Education Council of England and Wales (archived here) addresses the matter, too:
The most common interpretation of the legislation that applies to RE means that most syllabuses used for the subject in English schools refer to Christianity, five other principal religions: Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism and a non-religious worldview such as Humanism. This is known as a 'world religions approach'. It began in the 1970s and became the dominant model for organising the curriculum.
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Other Lead Stories fact checks mentioning the U.K. are here.
