by Madeleine Collins
Church authorities in Western Australia have temporarily lifted a ban on primary school scripture material from Sydney’s Anglican Youthworks.
The turnaround follows a review last month that found many teachers are unhappy with the approved syllabus, Religion in Life, and want to keep using the Youthworks Connect resource in the classroom.
The ban had prompted worried protests from some evangelicals, who reluctantly returned their material to Youthworks or tried to ignore the ruling.
While those who used the resource – believed to be about 80 teachers – can now resume using it, they may be told to stop if an investigation looking into the possibility of using the two resources fails. Religion in Life has been the only approved syllabus in WA since 1993 but until recently has not been strictly enforced. It has been strongly criticised by evangelicals for not teaching the Bible’s message of salvation or mentioning sin.
Interdenominational body Youthcare (formerly the Churches Commission on Education) announced the restriction in June. Youthcare is responsible for managing SRE (Special Religious Education) in the State and liaises between the government and schools. The syllabus has to be approved by the government and the WA Heads of Churches.Training is required for teachers, but unlike NSW, SRE is not compulsory in public schools.
But efforts to standardise SRE have failed to prevent a system some say is on the brink of collapse. There has been a dramatic fall in volunteer teacher numbers – down from 1200 in 1995 to just 400 in 2004. Youthcare is trying to compete with non-Christian faith groups it says want to take over the running of SRE. A number of schools have banned SRE altogether, or cannot get the volunteers to teach it.
Youthcare is so concerned that it has launched a ‘scripture teacher crisis recovery strategy’ through raising training, recruitment and syllabus standards. It has not only cracked down on the non-approved Connect, but a frantic recruitment drive for teachers has also been launched. A thousand new teachers are needed next year.
Youthcare Field Officer Brady Williams says 800 people stopped teaching scripture before the emergency strategy was put in place. He wrote to teachers earlier this year expressing his concern over people using Connect.
“I had thought the problem may be just a few schools – but was shocked at the size of the problem,” he said. “The question regarding having Connect as a second option…was answered with a clear ‘no’ by the WA Heads of Churches recently.”
It is a situation that Grant Maple of Youthworks’s Anglican Education Commission says is devastating. “[In NSW] there’s a freedom at the local level to use a curriculum that suits not only the teachers but the children. In WA they’ve tried ‘one size fits all’ and people just don’t want to teach it. We’ve done some negotiating to get them to reverse the decision.”
Dr Maple said one of the problems with Religion in Life is that “it would be fairly hard for children to really respond to Jesus because I don’t think he’s ever presented in a coherent enough way. The people who are most motivated to go in are the people from evangelical Bible-based churches and they are less than happy with the sort of approach [it] takes.”
A working party has been formed to investigate the possibility of using the two curricula. Denominational teaching is also now being explored.
Mr Williams said the outcome of board’s decision might still restrict teachers to the use of one curriculum, but he implored teachers not to give up. “I think people fear what they may face when they teach scripture. At the end of the day we just need more people to be involved.”
Religion in Life is published by the Melbourne-based Council for Christian Education in Schools and is designed to contribute to a ‘values-based’ education through ‘stories of people questing for truth, persevering against adversity [and] showing initiative’.
While a number of evangelicals contacted by Southern Cross declined to comment publicly, Dean of Geraldton Jeremy Rice conceded the high level of training required – three full days for a provisional license – could be off-putting for some people, but it is just part of a wider problem.
“It’s more than just Religion in Life. If a principal decides not to have scripture, they won’t have it. We’re walking on eggshells here,” Dean Rice said.
The Rev David Juniper from Albany Baptist Church agrees. “It’s a great balancing act we do in public schools each week.”
According to Bishop Brian Kyme, Assistant to the Primate, schools have more support for the pastoral care offered by chaplains than they do for religious education. “I don’t think changing the syllabus is going to change the situation.”
