Violet McClintock with her parents Lisa and Jeff at the heart of the long running battle to overhaul Christianity in schools

Those battling to have greater say in how religion is taught in New Zealand schools have had a minor win in court.

"We got a small part of what we wanted," said Secular Education Network's (SEN) David Hines.

Hines said the aim of Wednesday's hearing was to try bring further evidence into the year-long landmark case.

The judge ruled SEN could bring Paul Morris, professor religious studies at Victoria University in as an expert witness.

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Hines said Morris had reviewed several schools religious education programmes and found "most of the lesson plans were so biased, it would not do any children any good to listen to it".

Hines said he had not decided whether to use Morris however.

The judge allowed only Morris. "They wouldn't give us the option to bring in other witnesses on different subjects," said Hines.

He was hoping to bring in advocates for other religions and atheism as well.

"We've been talking to buddhists, we've been talking to hindu, sikh, muslim, jewish and atheist representatives who say if there's going to be religious education, let's talk about it all and give kids a balanced view of all religions.

SEN advocates for all religions being taught in schools, but not by "christian missionaries".

"They (Bible classes) are bad news for anybody who is not a christian. They teach all our values come from Christianity, which annoys people. They teach you have to believe in God to be a good person...they don't mention Islam in any of their lessons," said Hines.

The case started early last year when SEN member Jeff McClintock said his daughter, Violet, was placed in Bible lessons at Red Beach School without his permission.

McClintock is taking his daughter's school and the attorney-general to court over the issue.

The Ministry of Education states that the current rules around religious education is schools is that the New Zealand Curriculum and the Maori-medium equivalent Te Marautanga o Aotearoa allow for objective religious education where students can be taught about different religions in a neutral way.

The Ministry said: "This often happens in the context of a subject area like social studies. It is up to schools to decide whether religious education is offered. Religious instruction is different from religious education in that it endorses a particular faith. Religious instruction is not part of the New Zealand Curriculum.

"A school's board of trustees may offer religious instruction for students to participate in on a voluntary basis while the school is closed, in other words outside school hours. The board decides on the nature and content of this instruction in consultation with the community it serves."

SEN says its ideal outcome would be to have all voluntary religious instruction changed to "opt in" from "opt out", so parents had to give permission for children to take part in the lessons.

SEN also wanted the classes to be held before or after school, or during lunchtimes rather than during the school day.



