We received well over 1,000 signatures and many, many comments stating why Victorian parents believe our State Schools should be secular and not have SRI as an option during the school day.

Thank you to everyone who signed the Parents Victoria petition to remove SRI from the core school day in our State Schools.

Attendance at Special Religious Instruction (SRI) classes may not be compulsory, but SRI requires families of minority religions, or of no religion, to withdraw their children from class. Classroom teachers must supervise both the SRI teacher and non-attending children.

SRI takes up valuable time in the school day in an oversubscribed and increasingly complex curriculum. SRI was not present in Victoria until the law was changed during the cold war (1950). There are worrying trends in SRI; in 2006 the group authorized to administer SRI, changed its name from “Council for Christian Education” to “ACCESS MINISTRY”. This change reflects a change of focus to youth ministry from education. ACCESS Ministry’s leaders have openly said they seek to “make disciples”.

Parents Victoria strongly supports the principles of public education; one of these is that school is secular. SRI is designed as an exception to the secular principle. The principle is the basis upon which communities of diverse religious views flourish. There is no way to cater to all religions via SRI. During school all children should be treated as Australians, not members of different religions.

Changing this Government policy is not a vote against religion; families can be trusted to attend to the religious formation of their children; there is no shortage of groups offering religious lessons outside of school in Victoria. State schools should offer inclusive, non-discriminatory education about religions, not segregate children to instruction run by outside religious groups.

Signing this petition sends a message to the Government that Special Religious Instruction should be moved outside of the school day like any other elective activity.