what’s all the fuss about? | the issues in brief

In brief

  • The NSW Government is trialling ethics classes in primary schools, offering an alternative for students who have opted-out of religious education classes.
  • The Australian Christian Lobby are organising their base in an effort to deny parents and students the choice of this alternative & an attempt to protect a 19th Century deal between the New South Wales government and churches.
  • As many as 50 or even 80 per cent of students in some schools currently opt-out of religious education.
  • The Education Act prohibits non-scripture students being taught while others receive religious instruction. While other young children are allowed to examine their own ethics, values and morals,  the rest of the school are not allowed to do anything else.
  • Parents and Community Associations,  the Saint James Ethics Centre and even church groups say denying alternatives to scripture classes is a social justice issue for students.

Background

For over a hundred years, the NSW Government has prohibited the education of any student who opts out of religious study, under a 19th century agreement with churches.

Experts at the St James Ethics Centre  developed the pilot course on ethics, values and general religion in collaboration with the the Federation of Parents and Citizens Associations of NSW who unanimously endorsed the trial.

The Parents and Citizens Association of NSW have asked NSW Education Minister Verity Firth to approve the pilot of the ethics course.

The course encourages students to engage in discussions about fairness, honesty, care, rights and responsibilities

Parents will be able to opt to have their child attend scripture, ethics classes or not attend either.

The ethics lessons will be delivered by specially trained volunteers.

The ethics curriculum is now being trialled by the NSW Government but the Australian Christian Lobby has already co-ordinated over 3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> Save our Scripture (Make A Stand) - www.makeastand.org.au

emails in an effort to see the program scrapped, and is mobilising its supporters to petition local MPs.

Take action now

We need your voice!

We need average Australians, especially parents, teachers and students to speak up and let their local MP know that they want parents and students to have the choice of an alternative to scripture classes in the form of ethics education.

Here’s a list of things you can do today to help :

Unite – join with thousands of others by downloading our petition. The more signatures the greater our influence in parliament.

Influence – tell your local state pollie you care about secular education and choice for parents. How else can they represent you if they don’t know how you feel?

Spread the word – write to your local newspaper or any of the state-wide newspapers and get the message out!

In your words:

  • I strongly support the establishment of secular Ethics classes within the school curriculum during the time currently reserved solely for Religious Education.
  • All children and parents have a right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion – access to ethics based education should not be determined by a person’s religious beliefs.
  • Parents should be given the right to choose religious or non-religious ethics education for their own children.
  • It’s time to change the policy the NSW Government’s 19th Century ban on alternative education occurring alongside religious classes.

 Print article This entry was posted by Stimulate Change Team on April 27, 2010 at 2:45 am, and is filed under Education. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.
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