Purpose - Teach Not Preach

Include, not exclude.

No child should be excluded from class because of their religious or non-religious beliefs.

The Secular Education Network was founded back in 2012 by a group of parents to challenge an outdated law that allows belief based exclusion. We continue to support parents and lobby for change.

Our own young children were excluded and bullied for being ‘non-believers’. When we started to investigate, we were struck by how common our stories were. In New Zealand, only 37% of us are Christian, and 48% have ‘no religion’ (2018 Census results). Still, Christian religious instruction is preached to the vast majority of children in more than 600 of our schools.

The August 2020 update to the Education and Training Act now requires schools to enforce an ‘opt-in’ process for religious instruction. This should finally ensure that parents and caregivers are aware of any church-led religious instruction their child is receiving – although whether this happens in practice is up to individual schools.

However, religious instruction classes are led by church members, and the content is not monitored by the Ministry of Education.

We believe that State schools need to be inclusive and welcoming places for all children, regardless of their religion, race or culture. They are not the place for converting children to Christianity – we have churches and Sunday School for that. Young children don’t understand the difference. They believe what they are taught in school, without question, even if it includes the Earth being built in seven days and that Heaven is the reward for believing in God.

There’s an important distinction between religious education, taught by trained education professionals, and religious instruction in what to believe, led by evangelical Christians. Learning about religion from an academic and objective perspective is important, and we are all for that.

Teach, not Preach: Changing the Education Act

Ultimately, Parliament decides whether the law changes. The Secular Education Network works to inform the public and encourage politicians to change the law.

Back in 1964, the Education Act was amended to allow our secular (non-religious) state schools to run bible classes.

We are pro-education, not anti-Christian. It’s time to change this outdated loophole in the law and put an end to religious discrimination in state schools altogether. Our education legislation needs to stand up for the rights of children and their parents to have their own religious and non-religious beliefs, and protect the right to education about all world views, and the right to express those views.

Help us lobby for change by signing up to the Teach, not Preach petition today.

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What does the law say?

Section 97 of the Education and Training Act 2020 says that teaching in every State primary and intermediate school must, while the school is open, be entirely of a secular character.

To get around this, Section 56 allows the school Board of Trustees to “close” any class, or the school as a whole, for an hour a week – and up to 20 hours of teaching in a school year – for the purposes of religious instruction given by voluntary instructors, and additionally school buildings may be used for those purposes. However, Section 58 requires the school to seek written approval from parents for any student to be allowed to attend religious instruction. No school should be asking you to opt-out your children from religious instruction classes.

When our daughter was 6 we had to allay her fears that Mummy and Daddy would be going to hell because we don’t believe in Jesus…. I was so angry, we opted her out the next day… what kind of values is that? Scaring little children.
K.S. (Facebook)

We often hear in church about the 10-40 window for evangelising people in the world. For me it’s a 9 to 3 window.
David Mulholland, Churches Education Commission National Director

They definitely taught us about Hell when I did it in primary school. They said that we would burn in fire unless we were saved by Jesus.
Reddit

My son would come home very upset that he was put back into the classes despite them knowing I had opted him out.
BT, Wellsford

My son used to come home and check behind every door to make sure God wasn’t hiding there. He was terrified of God.
MS (Facebook)

My daughter came home, asking if I would be going to hell and if she had to as well. I would far rather, given our changing society, to have my children taught about different religions, tolerance, to ask questions without fear of reprisal or judgement, and to gain an appreciation for other cultures and beliefs, than the current state of affairs.
L.F. (Facebook)

My 8-year-old was too scared to go to sleep. He had been a bit naughty and thought he was going to die and burn in the fiery hell.

It was a member of her church who saw nothing wrong with teaching my then 5-year-olds class all about hell alongside ‘but if you believe in God you get to go to heaven.
J.W. (Facebook)

In my 5-year-old’s class, pick up sticks were thrown over the floor and the kids were asked to pick them up. When they were finished, the instructor looked up and said “Good job kids. The reason we did this was to learn that, girls, if we work really hard we will get a good husband.” She turned to me and said, “Isn’t that right!”

I’d get in trouble with a lot of my fellow Christian ministers, but in schools, we don’t need Christian religious education, we need people to be literate about the religions that are in New Zealand.
Reverend John Hebenton, Vicar of St George’s Anglican Church in Gate Pa, speaking after the massacre of Muslim worshippers in Christchurch, March 2019.

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