An end to Special Religious Education in public schools

But while children should be told the things that religious adults believe, they should not be pressed to believe them. They should be told that of the many things that adults believe, some are supported by evidence but others are supported only by faith. They should be reassured that in a civilised society that respects children’s innocence and trust, they will be encouraged to believe only those things for which there is powerful evidence - that it is, and always will be, up to them whether to accept anything on faith alone.

Teaching children about religion in this way, perhaps in a course called Comparative Religion or General Religious Education (GRE), is a very proper thing for a public education system to do. Indeed, it would be the ethical thing for all schools - public and private - to do.

Special Religious Education is not education; it is indoctrination. The question, surely, is not whether public schools should be allowed to teach alternative courses while SRE is happening but whether SRE should be allowed in public schools at all. There are not just two positions under debate, but three (at least):

1. The churches’ preference: that SRE continue to have a protected, competition-free place in public schools (i.e. no Ethics classes);
2. The Labor Government’s preference: that SRE continue to have a place but parents to have the option of an Ethics class as well;
3. My preference: that SRE be abolished with all children receiving broad-ranging GRE as part of the national curriculum.

In a recent development, the NSW Coalition has announced that when it wins next year’s election, it will repeal the government’s reform and reinstate the churches’ preferred position, thus confirming the fear of many NSW voters that it has become a captive of the Liberal Party’s fundamentalist religious right.