Religious teaching irks

Press, 30 August 1979, Page 9

Religious teaching irks

Some school principals have been accused of using their authority improperly in organising religious education programmes within their schools.

Mr J. Mulheron. secretary of the Committee for the Defence of Secular Education, made this charge at a meeting in Christchurch attended by 25 people. Mr Mulheron said he also knew of teachers whose chances of promotion had been adversely affected by their refusal to accept religious programmes.

Principals had acted improperly by identifying their schools with a particular belief, Mr Mulheron said. It was not within their authority to organise religious instruction; this was a matter for school committees only. Mr Mulheron told the meetting that an amendment to the Education Act in 1964 had provided for a “closed” half-hour of religious instruction in State schools. However, the amendment had been so worded that the Minister of Education could set aside a longer period, limited only by the requirements of the curriculum. His committee had pro-

tested to the Minister of Education in the past about this “sloppy piece of legislation,” but had not received any satisfactory answer, Mr Mulheron said. ‘We feel that it should be repealed,” ‘he said. “The community and the taxpayers should debate such a scheme if they wnt moral education.”

Programmes issued by the Churches Education Commission had violated the secular clause of the Education Act. "hey had been sent to all principals, some of whom had gathered their teachers together to discuss how the programmes could be implemented. “It is not for the principal to identify the State in any way with this sort of thing,” Mr Mulheron told the meeting. The material put out by the C.E.C. and other “crusading” groups could offend many people, including Christians. Mr Mulheron described these groups as a “grave threat” to education. The committee was not anti-religious or antiRoman Catholic. It maintained that the State system of education should be secular. “That is the law, and that is the position we adopt.”

If moral and religious education were to be introduced, many groups considered that this education should be basically Christian, yet this ignored many other religious and non-religious philosophies that were widely held in New Zealand.

Mr Mulheron also attacked the Integration Act, saying that it had. in effect, been drafted and passed by the Roman Catholic delegation at the State Aid Conference. The State schools delegation had “failed miserably” in presenting its case at this conference, where any of the decisions had been made in secrecy. Other Church groups had been silent in the discussions on integration, and this was probably because of a consensus among the Churches that they would accept the Roman Catholic Church’s arguments on integration. “I have been accused of being a suspicious man. Aren’t they suspicious when they won’t allow more than 5 per cent of their rolls as children of the wrong belief because they might upset the. special character of the school?” he said. , Mr Mulheron said there should be concern for the special secular character

of State schools, in as much as there had been so much concern for the special character of private schools that were integrating into the State system. The meeting passed two motions from the floor. The first stated: "That this meeting convey to the Minister of Education its opposition to courses in doctrinal teaching being provided in state teachers’ colleges.” One abstention was recorded in the vote. The second motion, “That this meeting views with great concern the actions of a section of the community being made to break down the secular portions of the Education Act,” was carried unanimously.