Ethics or religion in schools?
A DEBATE over religious education has flared, as 10 public schools piloted an ethics course as an alternative to religious instruction this term.
A DEBATE over religious education has flared, as 10 public schools piloted an ethics course as an alternative to religious instruction this term.
Although many children remain enrolled in special religious education (SRE), some students opt out of these classes, wasting time at school because of no secular alternative.
While this program is still in a trial phase, Jewish SRE provider Academy BJE expressed concern.
Meanwhile, representatives of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies (JBD) and Jewish schools met NSW Education Minister Verity Firth on Monday to discuss how students were recruited to the course. Firth was reportedly supportive of the community’s concerns.
“Our position is that Jewish children should not be targeted to leave their SRE classes and invited to opt for the ethics classes instead,” JBD chief executive Vic Alhadeff said.
“The default position should be that Jewish children automatically attend SRE classes, and that the only way they can choose the ethics course is through their parents expressly requesting in writing that they do so.
Alhadeff said the JBD supports the initiative, but their “concern is to protect and preserve Jewish continuity”.
At the moment, it is only proposed to offer ethics lessons to students in years 5 and 6 who are not already receiving religious instruction.
Close to 50 per cent of Jewish children in NSW are taught by Academy BJE, according to principal Rachele Schonberger, but she is worried that with an ethics program, Jewish students might miss out on learning about their heritage.
“We want to give them access to the beauty of Judaism,” she said, adding that ethics classes have nothing to do with Jewish morals, history or spiritualism, which “distinguishes a Jewish child from one that is not”.
Lesley Holden, a parent at Crown Street Public School in Surry Hills and the pilot coordinator of the school’s community group, told The AJN she believes that students who are not involved in SRE classes are essentially discriminated against because they are not engaged in any meaningful activity at that time.
Holden said that, as a parent, she was “quite upset that there was no meaningful alternative for her son while scripture classes were on”.
In a media statement, Firth said ethics classes are intended to encourage students “to think and talk about things like fairness, honesty, care, rights and responsibilities”, rather than introduce a competing theology.
CASSILEE KAHN
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