The Dominion Post on Saturday reported that the Human Rights Commission is working on guidelines on how to run religious education in state schools. Its about bloody time. While state primary schools have been covered by a legislative scheme for years, secondary schools have not. And this has led to abuses.
The proposed scheme, allowing students to opt out of religious classes and reminding schools of their duties under sections 13, 14, and 15 of the Bill of Rights Act, is good - but guidelines are a weak instrument. The freedom of (and from) religion of primary school students is protected by law. Shouldn't this strong protection apply to all state schools?
The sticking point, of course, are the explicitly religious schools integrated into the public education system. But if, as the Catholic Bishop of Palmerston North claims, "the whole point of a Catholic school is to teach the Catholic faith", then the question needs to be raised: why the hell are we funding them? If parents want their kids indoctrinated into a particular faith, fine, that's their right. But that's not something which should be paid for by the taxpayer, any more than we should be paying to build churches. Some integrated schools do respect freedom of religion - the Dom Post article gives the example of Wellington's Jewish Moriah School, which seems to run a standard opt-out scheme for secular students - but those that can't or won't should not be receiving public money to preach their particular faith.
