The Rationalist Society of Australia has urged New South Wales education minister Prue Car to listen to the concerns of public school parents and move the state’s optional scripture and ethics program to outside normal learning time.

A petition on the NSW Parliament website calling for reform of the Special Religious Education (SRE) and Special Education in Ethics (SEE) program in public schools gained almost 1,500 signatures. The petition closed earlier this month.

Under the Legislative Assembly’s rules for petitioning, Minister Car (pictured) will now have 35 days to provide a response, which will be reported to the chamber and published in the proceedings of parliament and Hansard.

RSA’s Si Gladman has written to Minister Car, urging her to support the petition’s call for optional SRE and SEE be held during participating students’ own time, such as the lunch break or before or after school. This would bring New South Wales into line with best practice in other Australian jurisdictions (see here the status of scripture programs in other jurisdictions).

The state’s Education Act (1990) allows for normal learning time to be set aside for scripture for up to one hour a week, with non-participating students having to stop their normal curriculum while SRE and SEE take place. Increasing numbers of parents, however, are opting their children out of SRE, with recent data indicating small minorities of students in some schools having permission to take part in scripture.

Late last year, petition organiser Steven Cowgill told the RSA’s podcast, The Secular Agenda, that he, as part of a small group of parents, launched the petition because they were frustrated at receiving little response from the government to questions about SRE/SEE legislation over a number of years.

Mr Cowgill told the RSA he was looking forward to receiving a substantive response from Minister Car to the petition.

“This is not about removing SRE from government schools. It is about making a simple change to school timetables that will increase teaching time for the good of all publicly educated students in New South Wales, including those who do SRE and SEE,” he said. 

“The priority in class time on the public purse has to be the NSW Education Standards Authority curriculum taught by professional teachers, because children cannot get that anywhere except at school”.

Mr Gladman told Minister Car that the Minns government should put the educational needs of public schoolchildren ahead of the demands of religious lobbyists.

“This reform would allow religious interest groups to continue to provide SRE in New South Wales public schools for children who have parental permission, but, importantly, it would end the practices of scripture disrupting normal learning time and segregating children along religious lines,” he wrote.

“There is no reason for the Minns Labor government and religious interest groups to oppose what the petitioners have asked for.”

In a letter to the RSA in mid 2023, Minister Car defended SRE and said it had played an “integral part” in the public school system “since the nineteenth century”. 

Si Gladman is the Campaigns & Communications Coordinator for the Rationalist Society of Australia. He also hosts ‘The Secular Agenda’ podcast.

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Letter to education minister Prue Car, 26 April 2024

Dear Minister Car,

I’m writing on behalf of the Rationalist Society of Australia (RSA), which is Australia’s oldest freethought group promoting reason, secularism and evidence-based policy.

Previously, we have raised with you a number of concerns about the Special Religious Education (SRE) and Special Education in Ethics (SEE) program in New South Wales’ public schools.

We note that a petition on the New South Wales Parliament’s website calling for reform of SRE/SEE has garnered almost 1500 signatures.

Minister, will you listen to the concerns of the petitioners and reform the SRE/SEE program to move these classes to be held outside normal learning time?

The New South Wales government should put the education needs of children ahead of religious interest groups and follow the lead of Victoria in moving scripture classes to break times or to before- or after-school hours.

This reform would allow religious interest groups to continue to provide SRE in New South Wales public schools for children who have parental permission, but, importantly, it would end the practices of scripture disrupting normal learning time and segregating children along religious lines.

We note, too, that a number of peak education bodies – including the state’s Primary and Secondary Principals’ Councils, the NSW Teachers Federation and the P&C Federation – are united in calling for a review of SRE/SEE. These groups are rightly concerned that the program interrupts teaching in an overcrowded curriculum – especially when SRE/SEE enrolment numbers are shrinking.

There is no reason for the Minns Labor government and religious interest groups to oppose what the petitioners have asked for. As the petition says, there is no need to stop public education for all students while some pursue a private interest in religion or ethics.

Regard,

Si Gladman

Executive Director,

Rationalist Society of Australia