New South Wales Minister of Education Ernest Wetherell today ruled that there will be no class instruction in religion in the state’s elementary schools during the academic year of 1963. He ruled also against extension of “Christian dogmatic instruction” into the high schools.
The demands for retention of the present religious instruction in the elementary schools, and for extension of that type of classroom education to the high schools had been made by the Most Rev. Hugh Rowlands Gough, Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Primate of the Church of England in Australia, as well as by the Council for Christian Education. Various groups, including this state’s Board of Jewish Deputies, opposed the requests, pointing out that teaching of the fundamentals of the Christian faith or of any sectarian creed, or affirmation of any dogmatic religious belief in the public schools, contravened the Public Instruction Act.
Ruling on this controversy, Mr. Wetherell declared today: “Scripture stories will be continued in the primary schools. But, as to the question of belief, pupils will be referred to parents or ministers of religion. Greater stress will be laid on general principles of good conduct, moral lessons and the lives of great men of history, who will be treated for their inspirational, educational values, but without involving the teachers in any opinion on the truth of spiritual beliefs. Teachers are expected to let children know that many religions differ from each other. But teachers must help to create and develop in public the spirit of tolerance.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
