Religion in Schools

Interfaith

Religion in Schools

Written by John McNeil Wednesday, 22 July 2009 13:47

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"Will religious education guidelines be fair and accurate?"

This is one of the questions asked by visionnetwork director Glyn Carpenter, as the Human Rights Commission works towards its final version of the Religion in Schools document. Submissions for the final draft closed on 30 June.

The Religion in Schools document is a follow-on from the National Religious Diversity Statement, with which Mr Carpenter has been involved for nearly three years. He
says he is surprised at how difficult it has been to have the Christian faith fairly reflected in the documents.

"The result of not recording accurately and fairly the significance of Christian faith in this country is to increase secularisation, which is effectively nothing more than an alternative belief system," he said.

"Christians are still the largest faith group in New Zealand, and the significance of Christianity to this country - historically and still today - is enormous."

After liaising with the Churches Education Commission (Bible in Schools) organisers, visionnetwork has made a submission, which can be seen on the visionnetwork website.
http://www.visionnetwork.org.nz/social/education/541-religion-submission.html

The final submissions will be discussed by a special working group of the Human Rights Commission at the end of July, and the document will be presented to an interfaith meeting in Wellington on August 24.