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Ethics lessons to continue in NSW

Will Ockenden reported this story on Tuesday, December 4, 2012 12:22:00

EMILY BOURKE: Ethics classes are set to continue in New South Wales schools, but finding out if they're taught or not may prove difficult.

The New South Wales Government has accepted all the recommendations of a parliamentary committee that looked into the issue of religious classes in state primary schools.

Ethics teachers are worried that one of the recommendations means parents won't be told that ethics classes are available until after they opt-out of religious education.

Will Ockenden reports.

WILL OCKENDEN: Ethics classes will continue to be taught in New South Wales state schools, but the schools won't have to tell all parents that they're available.

Parents will only be told of the ethics class option if their children have already opted out of religious education.

New South Wales Greens MP John Kaye isn't happy.

JOHN KAYE: That's a real way of keeping the whole issue under wraps, make sure that parents when they make the choice between SRE - scripture - and nothing at all, they don't know there's actually a third choice.

WILL OCKENDEN: A couple of years ago, the law in New South Wales was changed allowing ethics classes to be taught as an alternative to religious ones.

Prior to that, schools were prohibited from offering other lessons to students who didn't take part in religious education.

Ethics is currently only taught at a handful of New South Wales's more than 2,000 state schools, but is slowly being offered more widely.

John Kaye says the New South Wales Government's policy is designed to slow the adoption rates.

JOHN KAYE: It also means - as the inquiry finding is now being accepted by the Government - it also means that there won't be an opportunity to publish the existence of ethics classes in the school newsletter or indeed on the school's website.

WILL OCKENDEN: New South Wales Education Minister Adrian Piccoli says schools won't be stopped from publishing notices.

ADRIAN PICCOLI: Nothing's going to change in relation to what's occurred in school over the last two years. Yes, if you opt out of special religious education you have the option of doing ethics. To say that you can't promote ethics as an alternative would mean that we shouldn't be doing this radio interview. So that's plainly not correct. Ethic classes can be promoted.

WILL OCKENDEN: But from there it gets technical.

The New South Wales Education Department will only let schools offer students a spot in the ethics class, once they've been exempted from religious education.

Ethics groups say when religious education is offered at schools, parents receive letters informing them.

But they say when ethics classes start being offered, a letter isn't sent home to everyone. It's only sent to students who've already opted out of religious education.

Adrian Piccoli says it's not an attempt to stop students enrolling in ethics.

ADRIAN PICCOLI: When students are asked the question or their parents are asked the question, do you want your child to do special religious education, that's the first question that gets asked. And if they say no and then they say well you can either do other things or you can do ethics classes that we offer in the school.

WILL OCKENDEN: The organisation which developed and pushed for New South Wales ethics classes says the system isn't entirely fair.

Simon Longstaff from the St James Ethics Centre says while it's good that ethics will continue to be taught, he's worried that some students will miss out.

SIMON LONGSTAFF: There is an undisclosed option when you're looking at the first part and it's only when you've rejected that that you even know that there's the next option which you then have a chance to consider. So that's why I say it's like a sealed section in a magazine. You know, you cut along the dotted line and once you've got to a certain point in the process. It's curious in that sense because it goes against common sense in some ways.

WILL OCKENDEN: Simon Longstaff says there are thousands of students who'd rather be taught ethics instead of religion.

He says there are 100,000 students who've opted out of religious education, but only 7,000 of them are currently in ethics classes.

He says federal tax arrangements are also geared against ethics classes.

SIMON LONGSTAFF: If you're a faith group you are automatically granted tax-deductibility for any donation made to support what you're doing in the area of scripture, whereas if you're a person wanting to support ethics classes you don't get a tax deduction.

WILL OCKENDEN: The Inter-Church Commission on Religious Education in Schools was approached for comment.

EMILY BOURKE: Will Ockenden.

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