All public schools in New South West have an obligation to provide at least 30 minutes a week for optional religious education classes, but students who opt out are not allowed to undertake any educational activities during that time. That practice may be abandoned because NSW Labor Party agitates to remove scripture classes from public schools. A plan to remove scripture classes from New South Wales public schools will be put forward at Labor’s annual state conference by the party’s left faction.
The proposal’s backers are looking to emulate a move by the Victorian Labor government, which in 2015 removed scripture from the school curriculum, meaning the classes could only occur before or after school, or at lunchtime.
According to a member of the education committee, Adam Shultz, who supported the removal of scripture classes, it was reasonable to follow Victoria’s lead. “We’re pouring so much money into Gonski, why are we throwing away valuable class time? We’re keen to see classroom time focused on the syllabus,” said Shultz, a Labor councilor for Lake Macquarie City Council. “If you held it outside class time, it would be a lot better for everyone,” he added.
In NSW, scripture is known as special religious education (SRE) and it can be provided for no less than 30 minutes a week and no more than an hour, and is held during ordinary class time. On the other hand, there are secular ethics classes alongside scripture, which were introduced in 2011, but there is a shortage of qualified instructors. The problem is that children who opt out of both must read or undertake private study instead of regular classwork during that time. Parents are trying to help their children who do not attend scripture classes to be given something meaningful to do instead. Ethics classes are not funded by the government and they can only exist when the school has sufficient parents willing to both fund and teach the class.
“It is a long-held position of NSW Labor that in recognition of the diversity of Australian society we support parental choice in educating children about their faith,” Jihad Dib, the NSW Labor shadow education minister said. “Many policy suggestions are raised at conference [and] as a party our conferences have always been a robust forum to discuss a range of ideas.”
A 2015 review into SRE in government schools, which was completed in 2016 but only publicly released in April this year, found 75% of parents were dissatisfied with the kind of activities their children did while others were in scripture or ethics class. The education minister, Rob Stokes, has argued scripture lessons are a tradition in NSW public schools. “Religious education classes have been offered in public schools since 1848 and have been supported by all NSW governments since then,” Stokes said.
Victoria replaced in-school SRE with a relationships education program that taught content on preventing domestic violence, appreciating diversity, and world histories, cultures and faiths. The current NSW Labor proposal does not specify a replacement.
Photo Credits: The Guardian
