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'Too much' to ask children to talk about Qur'an
By Julie Henry,
Education Correspondent, Sunday Telegraph

New lessons which teach three-year-olds about Christianity, Islam and Sikhism have been criticised by child development experts as too complex.

The religious education guidance published by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority recommends that children aged three to five should master vocabulary such as "Amritsar", "Gurdwara" and "Qur'an".

It says that very young children should learn about the places of worship and holy books of a series of religions, including "Bible, church, Guru Granth Sahib, Guru Nanak, Jesus, langar, and mosque". Early years experts claimed the lessons will bewilder children who are too young to understand the concepts and language.

Sue Palmer, a literacy expert and author of Toxic Childhood, said: "In the drive to be inclusive we are overloading our children. If we try to teach concepts and vocabulary that is way beyond them, not only are we not helping the cause of inclusion, we are bewildering our children.

"More and more things are being crammed into the early years curriculum because of government targets, but it is not the important things, such as helping children to develop through play and developing their speaking and listening."

One mother who sat in on a nursery session in Bradford, West Yorkshire, where three-year-olds were taught about Chinese New Year, said: "At that age, children struggle to understand what a 'year' is. They didn't know what the teacher was talking about."

Development between the ages of three and five is assessed under five headings including personal, social and emotional, communication, language and literacy and mathematical.

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