20 LISTENER SEPTEMBER 7 2019
RELIGION
the religious sensibility and structures,
is missing.”
SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT
Since the Christchurch shootings,
mosques around the country have
reported an increase in interest in Islam,
in the Quran, even in conversions. Just
three months after the atrocity, it was
standing room only in the lecture
theatre at Christ’s College as students,
parents and outsiders filed in to listen
to survivor Farid Ahmed explain how
Islam helped him forgive the man
who killed his wife in the shootings.
Speaking from his wheelchair, he said
he felt peace in his heart by following
the prophet Abraham. “What is the
meaning of Islam? Attaining peace
through surrendering to the will of
God. Teaching not violence, but peace
through family and life.”
Yes, Christ’s College is a religious school,
a bastion of Anglican privilege, but all
students, says the school’s head of religious
education, Bosco Peters, learn about the
six main religions of the world. “How else
can we understand the world we live in?”
he says. “This confusion [over religious
study, religious instruction and religious
indoctrination] does irk me.”
On the other side of town, the decile 3
Waltham Primary School this year marked
Ramadan for the first time, talking to the
classes, providing alternative activities for its
12 Muslim pupils while others were eating,
and celebrating Eid al-Fitr, the breaking of
the fast that marks the end of Ramadan.
“I can’t believe we haven’t done it
before,” says principal Gordon Caddie.
Yes, religion is taught in the context
of celebrations in different parts
of the world, “but the curriculum
is not focused on religion
specifically. It’s a very grey area
- teaching about religion rather
than teaching religion.”
This grey area is
the hangover from
a 19th-century
argument over
which Christian
denomination,
if any, should
influence state
education. The
resulting legislation set in place a primary-
school system that was free, compulsory
and secular (secondary schools have more
discretion about what they choose to teach
by way of religious education, so long as
it complies with the Bill of Rights). But a
loophole allowed for religious instruction,
the teaching or endorsing of a particular
faith, outside school hours. This was made
law in 1964, when state primary schools
were given the right to close down for up to
an hour a week, for no more than 20 hours a
year, for volunteers to come in and provide
religious, usually Christian, instruction.
The main provider of religious instruction,
the Churches Education Commission, now
called Launchpad, operates in about 600
schools around the country. Apart from
a requirement for police vetting of all
presenters, the Ministry of Education takes
no role in overseeing course content.
“Fundamentally, these are Bible stories
used as a basis to teach values that are
part of the fabric of our society already,”
says Launchpad chief executive Geoff
Burton. “Our presenters are storytellers;
we use stories that connect with
children to teach values. There
are a lot of parents who agree
to their children doing our
programmes who don’t
describe themselves as
Christian or
religious,
but
they
see
thevalue of their children learning good
values like trust and empathy and
kindness.”
Others are unconvinced. David
Hines, spokesperson for the Secular
Education Network (SEN), says
religious instruction in schools tends
to be a “very evangelical” sort of
Christianity.
“I’m a Christian atheist, but even
liberal Christians would not accept the
world was made in six days.”
SEN is now seeking the repeal
of the provision in the law that
allows these extracurricular religious
classes, claiming that in privileging
Christianity, it constitutes a form of
religious favouritism that is contrary to
the Bill of Rights. The case was taken
to the Human Rights Review Tribunal,
but has since been passed on to the
High Court. In other instances, parents have
complained of children feeling stigmatised
or missing out on valuable learning or
socialising time when taken out of the
optional programme.
Some changes have been made. New
Ministry of Education guidelines released
this year recommend boards of trustees
in state primary schools, intermediate
schools and kura kaupapa Māori get signed
consent from a parent or caregiver before
allowing a student to participate in religious
instruction. This is a significant break from
the previous opt-out process, in which it was
taken for granted children would attend the
religious instruction on offer unless parents
stated otherwise.
But the guidelines are optional. In an
online consultation process on the changes
last year, 61 of the 100 submitters did not
think the guidelines went far enough and
just over half wanted the statutory authority
that allows schools to close for religious
instruction to be repealed.TEACH, DON’T PREACH
At the same time, there are growing calls for
more education about religion – as distinct
from religious instruction – to be included
in the school curriculum. In his submission
to the review of Tomorrow’s Schools, Peter
Donovan, a former associate professor of
religious studies at Massey University, said
New Zealand’s religious diversity should be
recognised within different curriculum areas.
Rather than any “heavy loadings of beliefs
and doctrine”, classrooms should be places
where students can learn about different
Farid Ahmed
Insulting religion:
bar manager Philip
Blackwood is escorted
by police to a court in
Yangon, Myanmar.