Across the country, state governments continue to allow religious missionaries to take over the classrooms of public schools and disrupt valuable teaching and learning time under the guise of religious instruction programs – or ‘scripture’. 

In this webinar, Jack Galvin Waight, Regional Organiser for the New South Wales Teachers Federation, will present on the ongoing influence of and interference by religious interests in the public education system, especially regarding Special Religious Education (SRE) in New South Wales.

He will also discuss more broadly the history and politics of religion in public schools, including the issue of taxpayer-funded religious chaplaincy, and the implications for secular education in Australia.

Mr Galvin Waight is the author of the new report, Teaching not preaching: Making our public schools secular. The NSW Teachers Federation believes that public education should always be free and secular.