Dr Paul Allen

The Welsh Government is poised to oust religious education and ban Christianity from schools to “rise to the challenge of community cohesion” and “extremism.” Welsh Minister for Education and Skills Huw Lewis, told Senedd, The Welsh Parliament: “My contention would be that we rename the [religious education] curriculum and transform it into the religion, philosophy and ethics element of the curriculum – where there is an explicit commitment to allowing children to ponder ideas around ethics and citizenship and what it means to be a citizen of a free country.” He argued that the Welsh government must “rise to the challenge of community cohesion” through reforming religious education. At the end of June an “ Independent review of curriculum and assessment arrangements in Wales” by Professor Graham Donaldson, a former chief inspector of schools in the principality, urged that pupils in Welsh schools should be “ethical, informed citizens of the world.” Earlier in the month, a report...

State school students have come home from religious instruction classes believing they would “ burn in hell ” or be “eaten by the devil”, according to a new book on secular education in Australia . The author, Cathy Byrne, a Southern Cross University research program manager, argues Queensland now has the least secular education system in Australia , in contrast with 19th-century state regulations restricting restricting religious instruction to before or after school hours. Byrne by using the words "19th-century state regulations" is seeking to do what many southerners did in the Daylight saving debate; namely turn back your clocks and lives as you enter Queensland. In a chapter on her research on Queensland, Byrne says six children from five schools reported “burn in hell” comments. One parent she interviewed about religious instruction classes said: “My child believed everything he was being told, including that he would burn in hell.” Six children out of a total of 10...