When classes were scheduled during class hours, about 1,300 elementary school students in 40 schools participated, she said.
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Arkan Toledo once taught Islamic education at 12 schools, but now no longer teaches. The organization’s director, Adel Salman, said schools were “reluctant to facilitate these types of extracurricular activities”.
Salman said the surge in enrollment in Islamic schools was partly caused by the lack of religious instruction in public schools.
Des Cahill, former president of Religions for Peace Australia, which accredits instructors in Buddhism and the Baha’i Faith, said there are currently no instructors from his organization in schools due to the difficulties of getting children to study after class and finding teachers to attend.
“When they made the change that special religious instruction couldn’t be taught in the classroom, it almost completely collapsed,” he said.
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School education in Victorian times was required by law to be secular. Religious education, where students study world religions and secular beliefs, is part of the Victorian curriculum.
The coalition promised to reintroduce special religious instruction into the curriculum if it won the 2018 election. It has since dropped that policy and instead called for a curriculum overhaul.
Jennifer Bleazby, a senior lecturer in education, culture and society at Monash University, said special religious education has no place in secular state schools because it promotes religion.
But she said Victoria’s faith and ethics curriculum was “taught by teachers who are qualified and do not promote their own point of view and do not promote controversial and controversial beliefs as if they were true”.
Each religious education provider prepares its own program materials, which are not endorsed by the education department, but must meet minimum standards regarding human rights and anti-discrimination laws.
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