Parents call for alternative to scripture classes

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Parents call for alternative to scripture classes

ELIZABETH JACKSON: The push is on for New South Wales to join the rest of the country and offer a secular alternative to scripture classes in the State's public schools.

At the moment many parents are unhappy about having to choose between organised religion classes and an hour spent watching videos in the classroom.

A proposal for a pilot program promises to address what's seen as a gap in the education for many children.

Simon Santow reports.

SIMON SANTOW: In the late 1800s the Church and State agreed that religion would have a dedicated hour a week in the school timetable.

But with that agreement came a no-compete clause that still exists in 2009. If you didn't go to scripture you couldn't be taught other things.

SIMON LONGSTAFF: We were told by a number of parents that their children were being placed into rooms where they wither had to colour in or do something reasonably meaningless.

But even worse, we heard about the case of students who during the hour that they weren't attending scripture had to sit outside the principal's office, which is a place normally reserved for children who've been misbehaving.

SIMON SANTOW: Doctor Simon Longstaff is the Executive Director of the St James Ethics Centre in Sydney. He's been involved in developing what's being called an ethics-based complement to scripture.

SIMON LONGSTAFF: The same sort of stuff that's going on within the scripture class but without the theology.

SIMON SANTOW: An international expert has designed a pilot program that would run for 10 weeks for years five and six, and it has the backing of the state's P and C associations.

HOWARD PACKER: At the moment we have Anglican, Catholic and Jewish faith based scripture at the school, but nothing for the large percentage of children in school whose parents decide that they should opt out.

Howard Packer is the President of the P and C at Rozelle Public School in Sydney's inner-west. His school happens to sit in the electorate of the State's Education Minister Verity Firth.

And before any trial can get underway Howard Packer and others will need to convince the New South Wales Government that it's time to open up the system to change.

HOWARD PACKER: We're looking at ethics and a sort of moral framework about how you make the complex decisions that all we adults make from day to day.

SIMON SANTOW: Can you do that without having that religious framework?

HOWARD PACKER: I definitely think you can. I myself am a committed member of the Uniting Church and so come from a faith-based community.

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