Newsletter 88.

Newsletter 88.

This is just a short Newsletter. I hope to publish a full length one in the near future, but thought I would share some findings that are particularly relevant at the present time to children's ministers in New Zealand.

Religious Education in State schools.

In 2012 anti-Religious Education in State schools campaigner David Hines conducted a survey among the 1,833 Primary and Intermediate schools in the New Zealand. Each school was asked if they had Religious Instruction in 2012 and if they would be having it in 2013. Those schools who pulled out of these programmes were asked to state their reasons.

Although summaries of the survey have appeared in a number of New Zealand Newspapers, the actual survey results have, as far as I can ascertain, only been published on the American web site "Wesleyschair.net".

The main "fact" to come out of the survey was that "62 schools pulled out of Religious Instruction programmes in 2012 and 2013". This gives the impression that schools are ceasing these programmes because they are no longer wanted. However, a closer examination of the survey figures reveals that this if far from the truth.

Of these 62 schools that stopped having Religious Education (RE), the main reason given was because of a lack of available RE teachers. Other schools ceased the programmes because the schools themselves were closing! Other schools didn't state a reason for not having the programmes. In fact only four schools stated that the main reason for stopping the RE programmes were because of a lack of support from the school Board, Principal, or the parents. A further four schools cited this as a secondary reason.

Although some schools have stopped having RE programmes over the last two years. other schools did start them up, or were considering doing so. This is admitted in the survey summary, but I couldn't find any way of actually finding out how many! 

I also have to question the accuracy of the survey because one school that I personally taught a RE lesson at in 2012 are reported as stating that they didn't have these programmes in that year!

I would have thought that if anyone was really interested in having a complete and accurate survey, they would have asked the lesson suppliers (mostly Churches Education Commission) for the information!

I have had a closer look at the survey results for the schools in the Auckland Region - where the present opposition to RE programmes originated. Of the 355 Primary and Intermediate schools, 99 said that they would definitely be running the RE programmes in 2013 (i.e. 28% of the total). However, there are three groups of schools which, I believe, should be excluded from the results :-

1. 42 of these schools are Intermediate ones to which, as far as I know, are not offered RE programmes. So how can they legitimately be included in the survey?

2. Of the actual Primary schools, 62 didn't reply to the survey questions. You cannot assume, therefore, that they are not running a RE programme (I know for a fact that a number of them are). 

3.  Seven schools  were "Undecided" for 2013 (not surprising since the survey was conducted well before the end of the 2012 academic year). Again, you cannot assume that these schools have now decided not to run a RE programme.

Therefore, removing these three groups of schools from the survey, shows that 99 out of 244 schools (41%) would definitely be having RE classes in 2013.

Overall, in the Auckland Region, 106 schools stated that they had RE programmes in 2012 and 99 stated that they would be having it in 2013, with 7 more still to decide at the time of the survey - hardly a big swing against these RE programmes!

"If God opens the door, no-one can shut it." Revelation 3 v. 8.