Secular Education System

The Minister for Education

PO Box 15033

CITY EAST 4002

Dear Minister,

Secular Education System

I am writing to you on behalf of the Council in relation to the issue of religious instruction in Queensland State Schools.

This letter is prompted by complaints we have received from parents. These parents are concerned about children being placed into religious instruction, contrary to the wishes of their parents. They are also concerned that some school principals seem to have the approach that if a parent does not nominate a religion, this is taken as permission to put the child into a religious instruction class of the principal‘s own choosing. Finally, parents report to us cases of children whose parents have not nominated a religion being left with little or nothing to do. That is, the children are not being put into some sort of alternative education class.

From the point of view of the QCCL two principles are relevant to this issue. The first is freedom of religion. Parents are entitled to have their views about what religion, if any, their children are taught respected. The stories that we hear repeatedly, would indicate that that is not occurring in Queensland State Schools.

Secondly, there is the separation of the church from the state. It is our view that that principle forbids religious involvements with secular institutions which (a) serve essentially religious activities of religious institutions; (b) employ the organs of government for essentially religious purposes or (c) use essentially religious means to serve governmental ends where secular ends would suffice.

We note that the original Queensland Education Act of 1875 contained section 5 which provided that in state schools, “secular instruction only shall be given and no teacher shall give any other than secular instruction in any State school building. … But nothing herein contained shall prevent State School buildings from being used for the purpose of giving religious instruction… at such times… and subject to such conditions as maybe prescribed by the regulations“

As you will be aware, section 5 was removed from the Education Act in 1910. In our view, an equivalent to that section should be reinstated to the modern-day Education Act.

We note in this regard that the Education Acts of Victoria, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory all contain provisions requiring education in the government schools of those States to be secular.

We would be grateful to hear from you the government‘s response to the issues raised in this correspondence.