Religion “peddled” in secular schools
NSW Greens spokesperson for Education, Tamara Smith, has criticised the NSW Government’s rejection of an independent review that recommended scripture teaching in public schools be opt-in rather than opt-out.
“The 2015 review, which has only just been publically released, said the Special Religious Education (SRE) be an opt-in option for students … but this was not supported by the NSW Government,” Ms Smith said.
“It should be an opt-in option for SRE, not an opt-out. Religious instruction is extracurricular for state funded schools, it is not the core business of Public Schools.
“The NSW Government has decided that state schools are Christian by default.
“If students across NSW Public Schools were automatically opted in to Islamic studies, for example, when they enrolled there would be an absolute furore.
“Why then is there the assumption that students in a secular nation, in secular schools, should be enrolled in studies of predominantly Judaeo-Christian traditions?”
Ms Smith said the review recommended that students not participating in SRE should continue their regular classwork, but the NSW Government’s response is that ‘no academic instruction or formal school activities should occur during time set aside for SRE.’
“If parents and young people wish to sign up for scripture lessons they can elect to do so and those lessons should be given outside of the curriculum,” Ms Smith said.
“Those students who have not chosen scripture studies should be able to continue with their education.”
Less than one-third of high school students are enrolled in scripture, according to a $300,000 review of Special Religious Education (SRE) released by the NSW Department of Education.
But the department has rejected making substantial changes to the teaching of scripture after sitting on the review by ARTD consultants for almost 18 months.
A recommendation to permit the majority of students who do not take scripture to get on with their class work was rejected on the basis it was against the current Religious Education Policy; along with a recommendation to give high school principals the power to opt in to SRE, which was rejected because parents currently have the right to withdraw their child from SRE in writing.
In primary schools, participation in SRE is about 71 per cent, while almost half of all principals report a decline in scripture enrolments in the past four years.
But there is no way to test those enrolment figures, which are based on a survey of principals, because the department also rejected a recommendation to keep centralised SRE enrolment figures on the basis it would not be “the best use of resources to establish an additional statewide monitoring system for attendance in SRE”.
In addition, the controversial 2015 change that removed the ethics option from the school enrolment form, which was viewed by ethics advocates as a sop to Christian Democrat MP Rev Fred Nile who holds the balance of power in the upper house, will stay, against the recommendation of the review.
“I am very pleased that today the NSW Coalition government has continued its positive support for SRE, which is so beneficial to our young people today,” Mr Nile said.
The review was a recommendation of a 2012 upper house inquiry into ethics classes in NSW schools, which recommended the department publish the number of students taking part in ethics and scripture classes, or neither, and that both types of class be reviewed in 2014-15.
Education Minister Rob Stokes conceded the review heard some “concerning anecdotes” but said “there was no widespread or systemic evidence of problems in the present system of SRE or SEE [ethics].
“The Department of Education has accepted a number of recommendations to improve transparency and accountability. The changes include ensuring information about providers and their curriculums are available to inspect online, improving complaint-handling procedures and ensuring age-appropriate content.”
Opposition education spokesman Jihad Dib said: “I have concerns that sensible recommendations such as those about opting in or out have been rejected by the government.
“Even though we have had to wait for 18 months, there are still many questions to be answered,” he said, such as how an organisation could lose its status as an SRE provider, details of the curriculum being implemented and the monitoring of delivery.
Mr Murray Norman from the Inter-Church Commission on Religious Education in Schools said the group welcomed the government's response to the review.
He said keeping central enrolment statistics was not practical because there are over 100 providers of SRE in NSW.
Students not doing SRE do “alternate activities, like being able to do homework or reading”.
“We think it's valuable for students to be able to explore the faith of their family and the other students are able to read or do homework or other alternatives organised by the school. We think that's an appropriate stance.”
Primary Ethics, the group that coordinates ethics teaching in hundreds of NSW primary schools, said it was pleased the quality of its curriculum and volunteer recruitment process was recognised, but was disappointed the department did not support the recommendation to review the existing enrolment form.
Graeme Macpherson from the Fairness in Religion in Schools group, which campaigns against faith-based lessons in public schools, said the report was “disappointing”.
“The Consultative Committee for SRE is made up of the main religious bodies and they've effectively been given authority to control the whole process. It's very insular.”
