A judge in Britain has ruled that not including “non-religious world views” on the new schools’ Religious Studies (RS) course is an “error of law” in need of correcting.

The course applies to State-run schools but not to Church-run schools.

Mr Justice Warby agreed with the case taken by three families who argued against the omission of non-religious beliefs from the GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education)  religious studies curriculum announced in February. The three families were backed by the British Humanist Association.

He ruled that there had been a “breach of duty” on the part of Education Minister Nicky Morgan in reflecting the ‘pluralistic’ nature of Britain.

Acknowledging that “it is not of itself unlawful to permit an RS GCSE to be created which is wholly devoted to the study of religion”, Justice Warby cited a government assertion in February that the new religious studies course “”will fulfil the entirety of the state’s [religious education] duties”. He said schools would interpret this to mean non-religious views need not be included in teaching.

“The assertion,” he ruled, “thus represents a breach of the duty to take care that information or knowledge included in the curriculum is conveyed in a pluralistic manner.”

A spokesman for the Department of Education said that while the department would “carefully consider the judgement”, it would not “not challenge the content or structure of that new GCSE, and the judge has been clear it is in no way unlawful.

“His decision will also not affect the current teaching of the RS GCSE in classrooms.”

The British Humanist Association described the ruling as a “triumph” in its work to gain parity between religions and humanism as an example of a non-religious world view.

If the Department of Education opts not to challenge Justice Warby’s decision, non-religious content will have to be added to the GCSE curriculum ahead of the 2016 roll-out of the religious studies course.