Our gods and their texts have no place
in today's classrooms

29 June 2017 - 06:50 By The Times Editorial
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Symbols representing different religions in society. File photo.
Symbols representing different religions in society. File photo.
Image: Gallo Images/iStockphoto

The High Court in Johannesburg ruled that it was a contravention of the Schools Act for a public school to promote one religion to the exclusion of others. The case was brought by the Organisation for Religious Education and Democracy arguing that schools should provide religious education and not religious instruction.

This is more or less what the law says, but, as many will know, the reality in schools can often be at odds with the law and national education policy. It is not uncommon for public schools to embrace religious rituals at official events like assemblies and prize-givings, where attendance is neither "free nor voluntary", as was underlined in yesterday's court judgment.

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.

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