EDUCATION Minister Peter Garrett is considering funding non-religious ''pastoral care workers'' under the controversial school chaplains program, but the religious lobby is warning him not to muddy the waters.

Mr Garrett's review of the $437 million federally funded National School Chaplaincy Program confirms that the vast majority of chaplains - 98.52 per cent - are Christian even though only 64 per cent of Australians identify as Christian.

People with no religion make up 19 per cent of the population and only 0.01 per cent of chaplains.

Schools must exhaust all possibilities of finding a suitable religious chaplain before they are able to apply for a secular person.

A discussion paper, released on Friday, confirms that a ''large number of stakeholders'' wanted non-faith-based chaplains because they could help non-religious children and enlarge the available talent pool.