The Coalition will oppose moves by Labor to grant secular ethics classes the same tax-deductible status as providers of religious scripture classes, but claims it is not doing so out of any religious or philosophical objection to the classes.

Currently groups that provide special religious education classes in Australian schools can collect tax-deductible donations in order to fund the recruitment of volunteers or administration of their programs, while ethics classes cannot.

Primary Ethics, the sole provider of ethics classes in NSW, said its program would become financially unviable unless it was granted deductible gift recipient (DGR) status earlier this year.

The Gillard government had originally rejected Primary Ethics’ request for DGR status, but reversed that decision in April, signalling it would create an entire new category for ethics classes.

The change is expected to be put to the parliament on Tuesday evening or Wednesday.