From The Age
Curriculum head warns against axing religion
By Michael Bachelard
May 29, 2011
The soon-to-be-introduced national curriculum may not include a religious education subject. Photo: Reuters
THE man in charge of Australia's national curriculum insists there is no problem with the way religious instruction is taught in Victoria, and warns that any moves to axe religion classes could drive parents out of the public system and into private schools.
Professor Barry McGaw, the chairman of the national curriculum authority, told The Sunday Age: ''I don't see anything wrong with a special religious instruction that operates precisely on [the current] grounds. If we deny any place to religion in public education and wish to make it entirely [secular], we are actually basing it on a particular world view.
''And the problem with that is that religious parents might opt out of the public school system, and that would not be a good thing.''
Professor Barry McGaw, the chairman of the national curriculum authority, told The Sunday Age: ''I don't see anything wrong with a special religious instruction that operates precisely on [the current] grounds. If we deny any place to religion in public education and wish to make it entirely [secular], we are actually basing it on a particular world view.
''And the problem with that is that religious parents might opt out of the public school system, and that would not be a good thing.''
