Special Religious Education in New South Wales, Australia

Student working in their SRE scripture workbook

While SRE can include a range of various religious providers for parent's students to choose from, depending on the school community demographic, Christian SRE is the predominant subject provided. Providers are required to be approved by the minister of education on the basis of a fairly simple application form. Providers are responsible for curricula and each is supposed to provide details of their curriculum to the school community; and this is supposed to be available via each school's website. The service of conducting religious education in NSW government schools is not funded by the government, therefore SRE Teachers are either volunteers or religious organisation employees who teach on a particular faith once a week, every two weeks or on occasion depending on the school.[4][5] The time allocated to the volunteers to teach can vary in each government school from 30 to 45-minute lessons.[5]

The NSW Department of Education outlines the importance of learning religion in government school curriculums[7] but SRE is not comprehensive, general religious education.

The NSW Education Act 1990 No.8 states under Section 32 that "in every government school, time is to be allowed for the religious education of children of any religious persuasion." However "no child at a government school is to be required to receive any general religious education or special religious education if the parent of the child objects to the child's receiving that education".[8][9][10]

In 2015 a review of SRE in NSW Government schools was conducted. The results showed that 87% of schools were delivering SRE classes, 92% of them being primary and 81% secondary schools.[5]

From the pie graph, the main religious groups being taught in NSW schools in 2015 was Christian based faith groups. The bar graph shows the percentage of each Christian religion taught in government schools.

The 2015 Review of SRE in NSW Government schools showed that the availability of the participation in the main faith groups are due to the location and type of school that is able to offer the religion.[5]

The review also showed the student participation in SRE. In primary schools the participation in 2015 was 71% and the participation of students in secondary schools was 30%.[5]

There has been an ongoing debate surrounding SRE on whether it should be happening in schools.

Catherine Byrne, wrote for the ABC in 2010 about SRE providing religious groups with the ability "to use this access privilege to enter public schools and spend an hour each week delivering content that is important to them ... to deliver such instruction so freely, unhindered by government regulation".[13] Additionally, a survey was taken in 2010 stating that "70 percent of parents and educators felt that SRE delivered important lessons in values".[13] The other side of the argument shares that SRE is giving Christianity an advantage, plus parents are concerned with discrimination and segregation.

The CEO of Christian SRE, Murray Norman has argued for continuing to have scripture classes in schools. He has stated it is an opportunity where students can learn about the faith of their parents and which they want their children to grow in, and such faith includes values and morals.[14] Some people have disagreed with Norman's statements. Parents have expressed concerns such as about SRE occupying class time for teaching other, considered-more-important topics.[5]

The NSW Teachers' Federation has said "teachers had concerns about the 'dead time' for students who chose not to attend scripture".[15] Cathy Byrne addresses that the debate on SRE in schools needs to take into consideration all factors of religion being taught and that people need to think about the ways in which we maybe able to improve SRE.[13]

In 2017, The Guardian reporter Christopher Knaus, shared peoples concern about some inappropriate topics such as abortion especially in SRe classes to young children.[16] After the review on SRE in 2015, negative thoughts arose on what particular faith-groups were teaching the students that attended. The same year, Naaman Zhou reported that the NSW Labor Party at the time would be debating policy at their annual state conference on whether to remove scripture classes.[17] The public school community had a high percentage supporting this motion. The Daily Telegraph shared similarly the push of removing scripture classes from schools, as some families weren't seeing the priority of it in their children's education.[18] One parent shared that, "schools should be offering something everyone can benefit from like debating, sport, cooking or dancing".[18]

In 2018, The Sydney Morning Herald stated that secondary principals wanted it removed from the program because it was taking up precious time that they thought should be used on other more important learning for their students.[19] The wish to remove SRE from NSW schools is still ongoing as news reporter stated that teachers were finding it out-dated.[20] SRE providers continue to argue that SRE is essential for a students growth.[21] SRE in a recent report has been proven to be beneficial for improving mental health issues and embedding good morals in students.

While SRE is still currently being provided in NSW government schools, the debate on its place in schools is still ongoing.

The Education Act 1990 states that Special Education in Ethics[8] Schools are required to make this other class available to Students whose parents object in sending their Children to an SRE class.[9] can be provided concurrently in the 'scripture' time slot in government schools instead of instruction in a particular faith or students doing 'alternative meaningful activities' of homework, reading, or personal study (which many stage 1 students cannot do without help or supervision).