The headmaster of a private school in the UK highly praises meditation. Their school has a daily "meditation time." It has been reported that since its implementation, students' anxiety has decreased while their attention has increased.
The Deputy Director of the UK Department for Education, responsible for primary and secondary education, Ross, also believes that meditation can improve students' learning attitudes and motivation. Therefore, it will be comprehensively promoted in public primary and secondary schools.
Meditation originally stems from Buddhist practice. In the 1970s, American researchers began using meditation to alleviate stress, with notable success.
The UK has included Buddhism in the school curriculum.
The UK government has now incorporated Buddhism into the curriculum for primary and secondary schools. How did they come to possess such wisdom and understanding? The reason may be influenced by the world-renowned British historian and philosopher Arnold Toynbee. In the 1970s, at an international conference in Europe, he claimed that the only solutions to the problems of humanity in the 21st century lie in the "Confucian and Mencian teachings of China" and "Mahayana Buddhism." This statement comes from a world authority scholar. Furthermore, the previous Pope issued a directive encouraging Catholic priests to visit Buddhism and engage in dialogue with it, all influenced by Toynbee's ideas.
Moreover, the UK government recognizes that the two major crises facing the world today—ecological and social crises—are increasingly threatening human survival. To resolve these calamities, it is essential to start with the youth, improving moral quality through religious education. Buddhist education is an education of wisdom, compassion, and love, teaching everyone to abandon selfishness, let go of material desires, and engage in unconditional sacrifice and contribution to help society and alleviate the suffering of all people. Anyone who understands this and truly follows the teachings will be free from troubles and pain, and will genuinely benefit society and humanity, which is the essence of the Buddha's teachings.
The UK government is making every effort to promote religious education. It previously organized a two-week exhibition of Buddhist artifacts, funded by the state, allowing British schoolchildren and the public to visit. This exhibition was highly significant.
In secondary education in the UK, religious comparisons mainly discuss different religions' views on the same issues. For example, comparing Christian and Buddhist views on marriage; the perspectives of Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, and other religions on filial piety, etc. Teachers in schools also lead such discussions to facilitate cultural exchange and moral education. The brilliance of the UK education policy lies in the requirement that regardless of what religion students believe in, they must study other religions in addition to their own, choosing two from the five major religions.
The UK will become an oasis in the desert of Buddhism.
Parliament has legislated to make Buddhism a compulsory subject in primary and secondary schools in the UK, an unprecedented move!
Historically, the UK's education policy has undergone unprecedented reforms regarding religious education. The traditional education law, which was exclusively Christian, has been replaced by "Section 3 of the Education Act 1988, which mandates religious education in primary and secondary schools." This not only reflects the United Kingdom's Christian tradition but also takes into account the implementation of education for other major religions. Since the enactment of this education law, it has remained relatively unnoticed due to a lack of additional support.
Until July 5, 1994, the UK Minister of Education, the Archbishop of the Church of England, and the Chairman of the UK Education and Science Book Decision Committee convened a meeting of representatives from all major religions in the UK to officially promote and facilitate the implementation of this new education law. They announced that all students in government-funded schools, aged five to sixteen, must study five religious subjects before the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) exams, with Christianity being compulsory and Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, and Sikhism being selected from which students must choose four subjects in consultation with local education authorities and schools.
It is known that the religious examination for the GCSE requires students to take at least two subjects, namely Christianity and any other religion, so private schools are not exempt from this requirement.
In 1994, the UK Education and Science Book Decision Committee published two model textbooks and guidelines for subject selection to promote and assist schools in implementing this new education law.
One hundred and eight counties across the nation have used this as a basis to develop their own religious teaching outlines. For example, Kent County, the largest county in the UK, also has the most schools (a total of six hundred and thirty primary and secondary schools). The education department of this county has decided to announce and instruct all schools under its jurisdiction to select Buddhism as the second compulsory subject (with Christianity being the obvious first).
According to Mr. Hannibal, who oversees religious education in Kent County, Buddhism, based on the principles of dependent origination and the Four Noble Truths, aligns with contemporary science and is easily accepted by Westerners; it advocates the Five Precepts, the Ten Good Deeds, the Four Means of Embracing, and the Six Perfections; it also promotes peace and non-violence, playing an extremely important role in enhancing social morality and maintaining social stability. Therefore, officials from the religious education department of Kent County, especially he himself, are very willing and actively promoting Buddhism to become a compulsory subject in every school.
In the UK, where Christianity is the state religion, the recognition of Buddhism and its legislative inclusion as a compulsory subject in all primary and secondary schools is not only unprecedented in the UK but also globally (except for Eastern countries like Thailand and Sri Lanka), especially in Western nations. It can be anticipated that in the near future, the UK will become an oasis in the desert of Western Buddhism, which will have a significant impact on the entire Western society.
