Last year 70,000 fewer 16-year-olds in England gained a qualification in Religious Studies, compared with the same period in 2013, a drop of 15% .
According to figures from the National Association of Teachers of RE and the Religious Education Council, take up of the GCSE RS short course has also fallen by 53% from 211,269 in 2012 to 99,601 in 2014
However, GCSE RS full course entries in England have increased by 19% from 216,182 in 2012 to 258,067 in 2014.
National Association of Teachers of RE (NATRE) has accused the Government of fueling the decline in the subject, Ed Pawson, Chair, NATRE said: "While it's encouraging to see a continued increase in the number of students taking the full course GCSE in RS, the overall decline in the number of entries is a major concern."
The Government has continually hidden behind the statutory nature of RE, claiming that it provides sufficient protection for the subject, but it's clearly not working."
You only have to look at the stark contrast between England and Wales, where overall entries continue to rise, to see the damaging impact of Government policy over the past few years. Now is the time to reinstate checks to ensure schools are meeting their legal or contractual obligations to teach RE."
The National Association of Teachers of RE accuses a third of community schools and over a third of academies in England of failing to meet their legal or contractual agreements to provide religious education for this key age group.