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Giving parents a choice in education

Posted: Thursday, 24 March 2011 | By: Verity Firth

Last year, the Government backed the wishes of parents and introduced ethics classes as an alternative to scripture in schools.

No-one can seriously argue that it’s unreasonable for children who don’t attend scripture to be offered an alternative. But that’s what Barry O’Farrell and the Opposition did last year, right up until their recent embarrassing backflip.

When the Opposition failed to back ethics classes last year, Labor acted to protect them by law.

The message we received loud and clear from parents was that they should have the right to choose what is best for their child, and Labor delivered.

When we released an independent report into ethics for public comment we found overwhelming support for ethics - out of 745 submissions, only 15 were against.

But no one should forget that when the Government listened to parents, the Coalition didn’t. When we stood up for choice, the Coalition didn’t - and when we acted to protect it, the Coalition didn’t.

The government strongly supports the important role of Special Religious Education (SRE) – commonly known as scripture - in NSW public schools. The provision of SRE is enshrined in the Education Act 1990, and we have no plans to change that.

Attendance of the ethics-based course for students who do not attend SRE will be a decision that is entirely up to parents.

This is not about competing with scripture. Ethics is a choice for parents who have already chosen not to send their child to special religious education.

As we’ve said all along, ethics classes will operate on the same footing as scripture and it’s up to parents to choose whether their children attend either.

Both ethics and scripture are optional, and both are run by volunteers.

Labor believes it’s up to parents, not politicians, to make these choices on behalf of their children.

Schools can now opt to offer the ethics course following consultation with their school community.

The classes will initially be offered to students in Years 5 and 6 students and will be progressively made available to all students from Kindergarten to Year 6.

Tags: Barry O'Farrell, education, ethics classes, Liberal Party, SRE, Verity Firth

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4 Comments

Posted: Friday, 24 June 2011, 15:14 | By: Norman from Narara , NSW

During the time of the longest running Labor Government in this State's history, scripyure lessons were given by visiting clergy, and the primary school curriculum also included component in religion given by the classroom teacher. In addition to this there was a curriculum component on Civics and Morals. As a non-believer I never felt threatened by any of this, and in fact enjoyed the bizarre beliefs of visiting clergy and/or committed lay enthusiasts. Later as a teacher (with the exception of one year when I took over a one teacher school out west with 35 students and upset the inspector that I'd declined to teach religion because it was more important to spend my time on making the significant gains I'd achieved in literacy/numeracy) I saw no harm in talking to students about a belief I didn't share, but a belief which had played a not-insignificant role in forming our culture. I could even have avoided my problem with the Department by simply presenting a plausible written programme of religion in the records, and presenting a 'modified' course. Many teachers did, in fact, adopt this attitude without it becoming an issue. I always treated the Civics & Morals course seriously, and suspect it was far more valuable than the touchy feely lessons now in vogue. A far more significant issue, and one ignored by current 'leaders' in education, is the failure of our systems to accept responsibility for trying to provide all students with the opportunity (regardless of their socio-economic backgrounds) to develop whatever innate abilities they happened to have. But let's not talk about that?
Posted: Friday, 25 March 2011, 11:43 | By: Phil from Sydney , NSW

I'm curious as to why we didn't think of this earlier. This is a fantastic idea.
Posted: Friday, 25 March 2011, 09:08 | By: Nicole from Bradbury , NSW

I would have loved to have an alternative to scripture at school. It's sad to think that the Liberals are so stuck in their ways that they would have denied parents a fundamental choice in relation to their children's education. It's a real shame. We'll probably see more conversative views slowly creeping in if the Libs control both houses.
Posted: Thursday, 24 March 2011, 12:13 | By: Lucas from Manly , NSW

That's right Verity. We live in a secular society where parents should be able to make the choice as to what they want their children to be taught. I've never found it constructive for those kids who don't attend scripture classes to be playing when they could be learning!