Religion In State Schools

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30133, 17 May 1963, Page 10

Religion In State Schools

The Religious Instruction and Observances in Public Schools Act is an example of well-meant legislation which appears simple in form and content yet bristles with difficulties and potential injustices. When the Act was passed last year, spokesmen for both the Government and the Opposition endorsed the principles it embodies. Criticism by the New Zealand Educational Institute, which supported the view of the Education Commission, was disregarded; and although an effort was made to safeguard teachers’ rights and to eliminate some cumbersome clauses, the Act presents too ma‘ny opportunities for communal dissension and personal unpleasantness. The Educational Institute (which, according to Mr G. H. Greenaway, supports religious instruction in schools) is justified in pressing anew for changes in the law. The Act attempts fairly enough to protect the essentia] freedom of belief without which New Zealand democracy would be incomplete; but nothing the draftsman could have added would have lessened the repugnance of Section 4. under which a teacher, if the school committee approves, may volunteer “to

“ take part in his own “school in religious instruc“tion and religious observ“ances or either ...” In its submissions last November to the Prime Minister (Mr Holyoake), the Educational Institute emphasised that the legislation ignored the Education Commission’s recommendation “ that no “State primary teacher be “ permitted to give religious “ instruction on school “ premises ”. The commission’s report said: “ A “ teacher is not seen to be “a private person when he “ is giving religious instruc- “ tion, particularly in his “ own school and to his own “class”. The scope for misunderstanding is, indeed, so wide that teachers cannot be adequately safeguarded against unfortunate repercussions by the bland assurances contained in the latter portion of Section 4. The ineffectual nature of these assurances is indicated (as a member of the Educational Institute has pointed out) by the lack of any definition of “ religious in- “ struction and religious “ observances ”, If the secular basis of New Zealand State education is to be maintained—as it should, in the interests of public harmony —it would be better for the teachers to have no part in religious instruction.