Latest Religion in Schools
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Response to SEN critics
Recent events at St Heliers School and appearances on TV of parents from the school who took their complaints to the Human Rights Commission have resulted in a storm of responses from those who support religious indoctrination of young children in secular state schools. Rather than reply to individual critics I have prepared a response […]
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St Heliers Moves Religious Instruciton Out
St Heliers School in Auckland has moved its religious instruction course to outside of school hours after two parents filed separate complaints to the Human Rights Commission and a third parent made a formal complaint to the school. The parents said the Christian-based lessons discriminated against non-Christian families, and should not be part of a […]
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Religion in Schools TV Campaign
The Secular Education Network (SEN) will be taking our message to the wider community in a nation wide television campaign. We are calling on our supporters to help us in two ways. If you are an animator or know one that may be able to help us we would like to hear from you. We […]
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Complaint against St Heliers School
A parent is complaining to the Human Rights Commission about the Religious Instruction lessons provided for his son’s class at St Heliers School in East Auckland. Roy Warren says his ultimate aim would be to eliminate Religious Instruction from his son’s school entirely, but the HRC hearing, set down to hear his complaint on January […]
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Education Select Committee Presentation
On Friday February 22, 2013, Peter Harrison gave the following speech to the Education and Science Select Committee. Today I am here to represent Rationalists and Humanists. I am here to promote evidence based policy development. I am here to participate in our democracy. As rationalists we agree with Peter Gluckman when he said: Many […]
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Letter to the Minister
The following letter was written by a member of the Secular Education Network to the Minister of Education recommending repeal of section 78 of the education act that permits schools to run religious instruction. To whom it may concern, I am writing to the Ministry in regard to clause 78 of the Education Act (1964) […]
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Charter Schools and Religion
John Banks recently said on Radio Rhema that he believes in the literal truth of the Genesis Story. Some have questioned whether this is appropriate for the Associate Minister of Education. The implied question is, “should a persons religious belief determine whether they can hold office?” Clearly we live in a free country, and everyone […]
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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. […]
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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 […]
