Schools break law on prayers

Some primary schools are breaking the law with their use of religious practices which include prayers at assembly, the Education Ministry has warned.

Less clear is its position on whether state primary schools, intermediates and kura kaupapa should be able to deliver "religious" karakia - although the ministry's senior manager, Martin Connelly, maintains the same rules apply.

He appeared before Parliament's education and science select committee yesterday to discuss what chairman Brian Donnelly said were concerns raised with it about religion in schools.

Mr Connelly told the committee the ministry was preparing to issue guidelines clarifying schools' legal obligations following an increase in parental complaints.

But Mr Donnelly and fellow committee member and Maori Party MP Te Ururoa Flavell said the briefing would only add to the existing confusion for schools.

The mixed messages about karakia in particular suggested little real research had been done, the pair said.

Any move to prevent kura kaupapa delivering karakia with a religious dimension would indicate the ministry had "lost the plot", Mr Flavell said. Mr Connelly said the Education Act stipulated that teaching in all primary and intermediate schools must be "entirely of a secular nature".

Limited discretion was available to offer religious instruction or observances, but this could only occur when classes or the school as a whole were considered officially "closed" - effectively "fenced- off" from the secular life of schools.

A written briefing to the committee said the 26-year-old Bill of Rights Act had narrowed down boards of trustees' discretion in this area, but several schools had failed to recognise this and a "change in current practice" was necessary.

Mr Connelly conceded that in light of the act's age, the ministry may have been tardy in issuing the guidelines.

He said the advent of kura kaupapa had also confused the boundary between religion and spirituality - the latter a subject the curriculum required to be taught.

He told the committee the ministry wanted schools to adopt "opt-in" rather than opt-out systems for students when schools "closed" for religious instruction or observance to save from humiliation students who did not want to participate.

A formal notification was needed to "close" the school for that purpose, which could not exceed an hour a week.

Religious prayers at assemblies would breach the law because all students were required to attend them.

Mr Connelly said karakia with religious elements were more complex, but as long as parents were consulted beforehand and could have their child excused if they wished, it shouldn't be an issue.

The paper seemed to suggest religious karakia would be treated differently to other religious prayer. "Tikanga should have an active role in the life of schools and not be 'fenced-off' in the same way as religious instruction and observances because it may contain elements that are spiritual or religious or both, such as karakia."

But after the briefing, Mr Connelly said: "Certainly in many people's mind it is a grey area where spirituality ends and religion starts. But ... if something is overtly religious instruction - it doesn't matter under what sort of guise - then the Education Act does not permit it in a primary school."

This applied to karakia delivered in primary schools and kura kaupapa. For example, it would be inappropriate to deliver the Lord's Prayer in any language, he said.

Asked if the laws could be breached if parents were happy with the school's practice, he said "no".

Mr Donnelly said many schools delivered religious karakia and there was a clear tension between the references to spirituality and religion in the law which had to be resolved.

Mr Flavell said some karakia had religious elements and others didn't, but it was impossible and inappropriate to draw a line on the issue with kura kaupapa.

Principal's Federation Pat Newman said he was saddened by the development but pointed out it was only the ministry's interpretation of the law.


School concerns

* Confusion about whether it's legally acceptable to provide access to voluntary groups to run lunchtime Bible clubs in schools.

* Religion creeping into secular life of schools through use of religious readings or hymns in assemblies.

* Teachers and principals leading observances, thereby creating the impression that student participation is not voluntary.

* Embarrassment and inappropriate alternative arrangements for students who opt out.

* Proselytising activities by school chaplains.

* Secondary schools are not bound by the secular requirements of the Education Act, but must comply with the anti-discrimination requirements of the Bill of Rights Act which does restrict use of religious practices.

- Additional reporting Mike Houlahan