‘Secular’ education principle in N.Z. now under strong attack

Press, 28 March 1980, Page 13

‘Secular’ education principle in N.Z. now under strong attack

Private church schools have begun integrating into the State education system under the provisions of the Private Schools Conditional Integration Act, 1975, and within the next few years hundreds of Catholic schools particularly are expected to integrate. Only two have integrated so far, plus eight Protestant schools, on terms which allow the churches to retain ownership of the school land and buildings, while the State pays for salaries, further equipment, and maintenance. The Integration Act arose from the State aid conference, and was prompted by the Catholic Church’s assertion that it was in such dire straits that without financial help it would have to close all of its about 300 schools and flood the State system with 64,000 pupils.

Integration, and financial assistance to integrating schools in the meantime, has cost the taxpayers $67 million since the Integration Act came into force in 1976, and the Catholic Church has just asked the Government for a further $l5 million to help keep its schools going. Many involved in education are concerned that this huge expenditure is at the expense of the State education system, which has suffered cutbacks in recent years. But there is also the wider question of what the integration of church schools means to education as a whole. Here. GARRY ARTHUR considers the implications for the 100-year-old New Zealand principle of secular education.

by the School Committeefand of religious observances conducted in a manner approved by the School Committee or for either of those purposes; and the school buildings may be used for those purposesZr for either of them. ■ Cf. 1962, No. 2 rf^^^^Xdd'itionalrcligious in sections 77 and 78 of this Act, in any case whereas Minister is satisfied that the majority of the parents of pupils attending a school wish their children to receive religious instruction additional to that specified in the said section 78 and he is satisfied that such additional religious iny struction will not be to the detriment of the normal currivk culum of the school, he shall generally or in any special case, after consultation with the School Committee, authorise the additional religious instruction up to such an amount and such conditions as he thinks fit.] Integra - 79. Attendance at religious instruction or observances not compulsory— (1) No pupil enrolled at a State primary school shall be required to attend or take part in any such instruction or observances if any parent or guardian of the pupil does not wish the pupil to. take part therein and makes

New Zealand has no State 'religion. That, was one of the things the pioneers left behind when they sailed for New Zealand. In England today, the Church of England i»s still the “established” church, with 26 bishops and archbishops sitting in the House of Lords, and Anglican doctrine a compulsory subject in State school's.

In English county schools, the law-prescribes that children must take part in a daily corporate act of worship, unless their parents choose otherwise. In Scotland, the Presbyterian Church is “established,” and its doctrine and forms of worship are part of the school curriculum.

The whole spectrum of Christian denominations was reflected in the colonists who made their way to New Zealand in the latter half of last century, and the legislators wisely avoided trouble by declaring in the Education Act of 1877 that education

should .be “free, compulsory'and secular.” . • That’ was ‘the: law. In practice, “compulsory” is the only one of those rules that still applies. Parents are paying more and more for the “free” educational services which the State is meant to provide, and the “secular” ideal has been eroded to the point where the taxpayer is now beginning to foot the bill for religious education too. This year the taxpayers —tens of thousands of of whom are non-Christian, and more than 84 per cent of. whom are non-Catholic —are paying $22 million for the support of schools where Roman Catholic dogma underlies the teaching. That is the amount the State contributed in the 1979-80 year towards Roman Catholic schools. Another $5 million went towards integrating Catholic schools into the State education system. The money is paid under the terms of the Private Schools Conditional Inte-

gration Act, which takes great care to spell out the ways in which the “special character”—that is, the religious basks of teaching —in private schools should be preserved when they integrate into the State system. The result is that Anglicans, Methodists, Muslims, Buddhists, agnostics, and atheists are paying for a method of teaching which embodies religious doctrine with which they would strenuously disagree—particularly the authority and infallibility of the Pope, and the church’s teachings on divorce, birth control, and abortion. The fact that those groups would also quarrel with each other’s religious or philosophical outlooks simply shows the good sense of those early legislators who chose to separate church from state.

There is no universal church, and probably never was in the sense that all adherents of Christianity ever agreed

V'll UUVlilllvi 1 lIV IUI disagreement in New Zealand today is clear from the 1976 census which showed that 130,690 people were humanists, agnostics, athiests, or had “no religion.” A further 477,891 did not specify their religion or objected to the question. While the Anglicans, Presbyterians, Roman Catholics, and Methodists made up nearly 74 per cent of the population, there were also 5203 Hindus. 3921 Hebrews, 2382 Buddhists, 1415 Mahommedans. and small numbers of Sikhs, Zen Buddhists,, sun worshippers, Confucians, Hare Krishnas. and many other non-Christian groups.

Only two Catholic schools have so far completed the complex procedure of integration. The main hurdle has been bringing buildings up to

scratch, although the Government has since relaxed that requirement, contenting itself with a promise that work will be done

as and when funds are available. But the church intends to integrate more than 300 schools, and when that is achieved, 64,000 school pupils will have the special character of their education — religious indoctrination — paid for by the populace at large. A small percentage of outside pupils may be admitted to a private school once it is integrated (only 14 out of 270 pupils under the Cardinal McKeefry School agreement), and the Integration Act says that while religious observances and instruction shall continue as part of the school programme, the school shall be responsive

to the sensitivities of pupils and parents of different religious or . philosophical affiliations and shall not. require them to participate.

That lets dissenters out of formal religious observances. and lessons, but religion is expressly permitted as part of the ordi-

nary teaching system at the school. The Integration Act says that although the integrated, school must follow the Education Act curricula and . syllabuses, the general school programme shall reflect the education with a special character provided by the integrated school and “religious and other examples may be used to reinforce teaching throughout the school day.”

Preference must be given to children of parents who have a philosophical or religious connection with the school, says the Integration Act, and those who enrol their children at an integrated school must accept as a condition of enrollment that the pupil is to participate in the general school programme that gives the school its special character (which means, in the case of church schools, the reli-

gious aspect of teaching). All of this applies equally to the Anglican, Presbyterian, and other private schools which choose to integrate, but they are few compared with the hundreds of Catholic schools which the state is preparing to take under its wing. The Committee for Defence of Secular Education is so concerned about the situation that it has called on the Government to reconvene the state aid conference. In Australia, the committee has a counterpart called the Council for the Defence of Government Schools, which is now challenging, in the High Court the validity of federal aid to religious schools. It contends that such aid is prohibited under section 116 of the Australian Constitution. Federal funds have been going to religious schools since 1964.