Religious instruction policies will not be altered, despite some schools making changes after complaints from parents, the Ministry of Education says. Parents at four schools in Auckland and Palmerston North have raised concerns about Christian Religious Instruction (CRI) being taught and three of those schools have since made changes to their classes. However, ministry spokeswoman Read more
Posts Tagged ‘Secular education’
Will religious symbols be banned in schools?
Tuesday, March 4th, 2014Concerns are being raised that all religious symbols could be abolished from schools following the removal of Bible studies from an Auckland school timetable. Some parents are worried that New Zealand could follow the lead of France and enforce a strict secular educational environment. It comes two weeks after St Heliers School announced it would Read more
Bible in Schools battlers denying our heritage
Friday, February 14th, 2014What a divine irony. At the same time that remnants of the country’s first mission school were being excavated in Kerikeri, St Heliers School decided to remove religious education classes from its school day – part of a slow but seemingly inexorable trend to purge Christianity from the remaining crevices where it is found in Read more
St Heliers School finds solution to religious education stand-off
Friday, February 14th, 2014Parents are “very happy” over the decision by an Auckland school to remove religious education classes from its school day. Religion will now be taught outside school hours for St Heliers School pupils who choose to attend. Continue reading
Religious instruction in schools in spotlight again
Tuesday, February 4th, 2014
Christian education in state schools is in the spotlight again after to parents laid a complaint with the Human Rights Commission about bible lessons at St Heliers primary school in Auckland New Zealand. A third parent is considering laying a complaint as well. The Education Act allows a school to close for up to 60 Read more
Punched for not praying
Tuesday, September 10th, 2013National Party MP Alfred Ngaro allegedly punched an atheist teacher at his son’s school for not bowing his head during a prayer. Ngaro, a list MP and former chairman of the Tamaki College Board of Trustees, was last week dragged into the Employment Relations Authority dispute between Tamaki College and former art teacher Christopher Scott Read more
Prayer is “not a religious thing” says headmaster
Tuesday, June 18th, 2013
Kelston Intermediate principal Phil Gordon says the prayers (karakia) said at his school are “not a religious thing but a cultural thing.” Prime Minister, John Key says teachers in schools should be able to opt-out of delivering a karakia in schools if they wanted to. Maori Affairs Minster, Pita Sharples. says because there are a lot of Read more
Bible teachers dropped for preaching at kids
Tuesday, December 11th, 2012The country’s largest provider of religious instruction in schools has stood down three volunteers for teaching pupils their own beliefs. Churches Education Commission (CEC) chief executive Simon Greening said he removed the three volunteer teachers for deviating from the organisation’s strict code of expectations, and that there may have been others around the country. In Read more
7 year old left alone to read as alternative to school’s Bible based programme
Friday, December 7th, 2012
A couple who took their daughter out of a school’s Bible based programme, called Values in Action, were told by the school that an alternative programme would be provided for children who opted out. However the child’s father says that when he visited the school he found his 7 year old daughter left alone in a Read more
Bible in schools – Christians disagree about it
Friday, July 20th, 2012
An Anglican priest’s support of the Secular Education Network’s campaign to stop the Bible in Schools programme has prompted New Zealand’s two Anglican Archbishops to reaffirm their Church’s support of the Churches Education Commission’s Bible in Schools programme. In an interview on Television One, the Reverend Clay Nelson, an associate priest at St Matthews in the City in Auckland, said Read more