Secular teaching defended

Press, 14 March 1978, Page 26

Secular teaching defended

A group called' the Concerned Teachers’ Association has been formed in Wellington to protect and extend the free, secular nature of State education in New Zealand.

The acting secretary of the association, Ms Sally Quadell, of Wellington, has produced a circular, giving the aims and concerns of the association. “The association is concerned at the success and influence of such crusading groups as the Concerned Parents’ Association who seek to impose their own religious and moral^ values on State education,” says the circular.

“We feel that some organised groups in the community who are pressing for a return to basics and the old values place too low a value on good citizenship and too high a value on competitive education, vocational and economic success, conformity and a narrow morality,” it says. The association Is concerned about what it calls the lack of proper representation of ordinary people and cultural minorities in educational administration, the Integration Act — described as irresponsible — and teacher unemployment as a failure to use an expensively trained community resource which could help to solve urgent problems in the social-education area.