Latest News
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CEC On Informed Consent
The Secular Education Network commends the Churches Education Commission for making clear its policy on informed consent. The CEC recently updated its web site to include a statement about informed consent.
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Get The Facts
You may have thought that public schools in New Zealand do not include religious indoctrination. The fact is that over 40% of public primary schools run religious instruction classes run by outside volunteers from churches.
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Australian High Court: No Chaplains
Press Release from the Secular Party of Australia Governments should not promote religions in the minds of children at taxpayer expense. The Secular Party thus welcomes the finding of High Court that the Commonwealth’s funding of the National Schools Chaplaincy Program is unconstitutional.
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Letter from a Teacher
Note: The following article has been censored in order to avoid identifying individuals. The article was originally removed after receiving a request from the Human Rights Commission. We are now removing names to protect the privacy of individuals. Other than this the letter is published as provided. It obviously represents a single point of view. We do not present this as fact. I’m an…
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Interfaith Educator Slams Bible in Schools
Interfaith educator Jean Holm says the present Bible in Schools programme is inappropriate and needs to be replaced. Ms Holm says the problem with Bible in Schools is that it assumes the truth of Christian beliefs and this is inappropriate for a programme that includes children from non-Christian backgrounds. She says the designers of the Bible in Schools programme claim they are broadminded and…
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Secular Education Network
All Children Deserve an Education in Values The Secular Education Network has been established to support parents who believe that Values are important in the education of all our children. That Values education should be provided on a non discriminatory basis.
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What Can Be Done?
Talk to Your Child Find out what is being taught in these classes, and which children are opting out. Find out where the opting-out children go and what activities they do during that time. Those children’s parents are ones most likely to be your allies. Talk to the parents, and refer them to the Keep Religion out of School Facebook page.
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Why a Campaign Now?
The primary motivation behind the Keep Religion Out Of Schools campaign is to support parents who have approached us with their experiences and concerns. Often parents are not informed of religious indoctrination classes at all. When they do discover their children are participating they often find that the classes have been linked with ‘Values’ classes, thus forcing them to make a decision between having…
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Why Oppose Religious Instruction?
We strongly believe that government should be secular; that is dealing with the issues of this world rather than following a religious agenda. Our law should not give one set of beliefs privilege over another and the state should treat religious organisations the same as any other organisation. The rights of freedom of belief and freedom of expression, must be upheld as long as…
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Secular Education Network Established
We are establishing the Secular Education Network to help support parents who want to bring their children up with values of free thought, tolerance, integrity and compassion, but without religious indoctrination. Many public schools in New Zealand conduct religious education outside of official school hours and link it to their values program. This forces parents to choose between having their children indoctrinated at the same…