This week, former Education Minister Bronwyn Pike, reversed her opinion about religion in schools. Now, former Minister of Education Peter Garrett, has done the same thing. FIRIS is feeling like the long slog making the argument that our secular education system is precious, has paid off.

Do you think there could be an outbreak of Higinbotham Awards?

In his recent review “Free, compulsory, and secular” of Prof. Maddox’s book “Taking God to School ”, Garrett says:

Taking God to School also focuses on the schools chaplains program initiated by the Howard government and continued and enlarged by the Rudd/Gillard governments. I became responsible for this program in 2010, and can confirm Maddox’s fear that the line between chaplains acting to support students in the provision of general pastoral care and proselytising was too easily crossed.

The program was voluntary both for schools and for students. It was also extremely popular, especially in the aftermath of natural disasters, such as the Queensland floods, where services were stretched and demands increased on schools to provide support for affected students. Nevertheless, the umbilical cord between churches with their mission to evangelise and chaplain providers who shared this same commitment required significant guideline changes to ensure chaplains did not overstep the mark.

The decision I took to open up the program to non-chaplains and lift the qualification requirements was based on concerns around this issue and some few cases of chaplains breaching existing guidelines. But I also wanted to widen the opportunities for non-religious support staff to come into schools and help students and teachers dealing with specific challenges that were holding back their learning, as was the case for many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and for kids recently arrived from parts of the world mired in conflict. Again, the recent budget saw this decision reversed, which means that some schools and students will not get the kind of support they deserve, simply because they do not wish to embrace the chaplaincy model.

Read Garrett’s full “Free, compulsory, and secular” review of Maddox’s book and the media coverage here.