ACDP rejects Education Budget Vote on basis of Religion in Education policy

The following speech was given by African Christian Democratic Party vice-president Louis Green in the House of Assembly in Parliament on May 20 2003:

20 May 2003

I wish to use the little time at my disposal to respond to the Minister and the Department of Education’s new proposed policy on Religion Education.

The ACDP believes that school governing bodies reserve the right to choose (based on a majority decision), the type of religious ethos at that particular school. The choices may include: a single faith, a multi-faith, similar to that proposed by the policy document on Religion Education, a secular faith as promoted by secular governments or no Religion Education classes at all.

We agree with the idea that religion can help address the “decline in moral standards in our country, the high rates of crime, and the apparent lack of respect for human life.”
We believe the notion that religious instruction is necessary if schools are to develop “the whole person”, including their spirituality is correct and we agree with the notion that religion goes beyond the confines of a church building and impacts on every area of life, acting as a philosophical or theological foundation for all of reality.

The ACDP fundamentally disagrees with the present government’s notion that schools are an “extension of the state”. This presupposition is very dangerous, as it opens all children who happen to also be the country’s future voters, to exploitation and indoctrination into a secularism that is consistent with that adopted by a self-proclaimed “secular state”. Schools are NOT an extension of the state; schools are an extension of the family. Parents have and raise children, not the state, and the responsibility rests on parents to send their children to schools. Schools are to be an extension of the values taught in the home and should not contradict them. To do otherwise, the state would be forcing a wedge between the family and the child through the agency of the “public school”.

Any attempt by the state to limit this freedom would be an undue interference on the part of the state.

It would be discriminatory and therefore unconstitutional on the part of the state to disallow parents (and the religious community) to have access and input to their children during school and school hours. To ask parents to send their children to school to be indoctrinated into another religion (such as secular humanism) and then remove their right and power to intervene is unacceptable.

Presently, our government allows ministers of religion to visit prisons (which are state institutions) to minister to prisoners. Not only are they allowed to preach and teach in prisons, but they are also allowed to proselytise. Similarly, in our Defence Force, ministers of Religion are allowed to preach and teach from the Bible.

However, it is now the intention of the Minister of Education to ban prayer, religious singing, and devotional scripture reading from school assemblies in the name of freedom of religion.

The Minister preaches tolerance, but practises bigotry. If the School Governing Body has accepted a particular religious culture for a particular school, why is the Minister adopting a top down approach to force all schools to accept his format of a weekly assembly, and uniformity in terms of multi-faith prayer and teaching?

The ACDP will never accept these restrictions placed on school assemblies and we call on all parents and teachers to stand by their convictions on this issue.

The department’s recent statement to prevent school governing bodies from employing subject specialists at their schools spells disaster for education in this country. The socialist mentality that is displayed through this type of reasoning seeks to control the flow of ideas from a central source.

The Budget must be spent on improving school buildings, providing textbooks and to keep our schools safe from crime and violence. We need to spend time in evaluating our teachers to improve their performance levels. Absenteeism of learners and teachers must be contained. We need to clearout our schools of teachers and pupils who rape our children and violate their rights.

These are the issues about which government should have moral outrage. Yet these problems escalate while the 'Minister of Religion' goes about his business, targeting religion at schools, and preventing schools from their economic and social responsibility to provide the best education possible.

The ACDP will vote against the Education Budget

I thank you


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For further information: Louis Green 083 441 9295 or 021 403 2472
Media Liaison: Charmaine Horne at 084 370 3550 or 021 403 3307