Don’t combine chaplains and welfare workers

Updated November 7 2012 - 6:13am, first published November 2 2011 - 11:25am

Our primary school is undertaking a community “consultation” over the appointment of a school chaplain versus a secular student welfare worker. I use the term consultation advisedly as I believe it is being undertaken in a flawed manner. In September a number of changes were announced to the school chaplaincy program. In short, schools still have a choice between the type of support worker they employ, but now they can request that an outside provider (I believe in Victoria this is either ACCESS Ministries or Scripture Union) recruit the candidate on their behalf, which reduces the administrative load on the school to manage the process should they choose a secular person. The school still has the option of recruiting a secular person itself.I applaud the decision to extended the program to include secular youth and welfare workers, the introduction of minimum qualifications and I would like to see a commitment to increasing the quality and availability of support staff, including welfare workers, in schools continue and expand.However, I believe there are still several issues unresolved with this program, not least of which is the selection of evangelical groups as the funding recipient regardless of the choice of worker made by a school.I have no doubt that the majority of religiously affiliated chaplains in schools are committed individuals who do a great job providing extension and diversion type activities with children needing that alternative.I do not believe that it is possible for a chaplain, with strongly held religious convictions, to avoid straying into the evangelical with information they provide to the school community. Given that school council has endorsed the choice of ACCESS Ministries as the funding recipient, I question to what extent even a secular welfare worker associated with this group can avoid bias. The choice of religion is personal and one that I respect; however, I believe that a government school ought to reflect a pluralistic community that is not dependent on religious positions. Using ACCESS Ministries (or Scripture Union) to recruit a support worker compromises the secular nature of the government education system, by breaching the spirit of the Australian Constitution and undermining the separation of church and state. The use of ACCESS Ministries or Scripture Union, for example, to the exclusion of others is an inequitable use of federal funds. To allocate the funding (originally $90 million over three years) to a scheme to employ only those attached to a religious, admittedly evangelical, organisations is discriminatory.I urge everyone participating in this process to make sure they make their views known to school council.Kathleen Pleasants,Quarry Hill

Subscribe now for unlimited access.

$0/

(min cost $0)

or signup to continue reading

See subscription options

Get the latest Bendigo news in your inbox

Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date.

We care about the protection of your data. Read our Privacy Policy.