Schools can’t favour one faith
NO MORE MORNING PRAYERS
Morning devotions, a Christian staple at many South African public schools, will soon be a thing of the past after a landmark ruling yesterday that public schools cannot promote or adhere to one religion.
Judge Willem van der Linde handed down the judgment yesterday in the High Court in Johannesburg on an application by the Organisation for Religious Education and Democracy against public schools promoting one religion. The application was opposed by six schools represented by Solidarity, a Christianity-based trade union.
The union argued the ruling would affect 24 000 schools. The Organisation for Religious Education and Democracy’s chairperson, Hans Pietersen, said the application was not aimed at banning religious practices in schools, but at protecting children and emphasising that schools should engage in religious education and not religious instruction.
The judge said: “It is declared that it offends for a public school to promote or allow its staff to promote that it, as a public school, adheres to only one or predominantly only one, religion to the exclusion of others; and to hold out that it promotes the interest of any one religion in favour of others.”
The judgment also declared that religious observances may be conducted at state or state-aided institutions provided that those observances follow rules made by the appropriate public authorities, are conducted on an equitable basis and attendance is free and voluntary.
Department of basic education spokesperson Troy Martens said it was up to school governing bodies to adhere to the judgment and that the department would monitor cases reported to it should they not enforce compliance. –