Arguments advanced by the schools in this case hint at this reality. They argue that every school community is unique and that each school should be able to determine an appropriate religious policy.
But such arguments cannot succeed in a society which purports to embrace diversity. South African communities are still largely defined by our divisive past, so such practices would lock in a status quo and are, by their nature, exclusionary.
A safer - although, admittedly, controversial - course is to go further than existing policy and the law now does.
Public schools should be aggressively secular. Classrooms should attend to our children's minds and not their souls (should one believe in the concept).
Secular morality provides rich material for guidance on right and wrong and our gods and their texts can be safely left to places of worship.