Australian government to fund chaplains in public and private schools

The National School Chaplaincy Programme will pay $20,000 per year to any school—secular or religious—to support the employment of a chaplain. Schools will be required to nominate a chaplain of any specific religious affiliation, who will then be vetted by a government-appointed board. The entire project overturns the fundamental democratic principle of separation of church and state.

The scheme has nothing to do with any genuine concern for students and the difficulties they confront. As outraged teachers’, parents’ and student counsellors’ organisations have pointed out, it will instead allow individuals without formal qualifications, including religious bigots, to prey upon young people with social, emotional and psychological problems.

Australian Capital Territory Council of Parents and Citizens Association president Jane Gorrie, for example, remarked: “We think it’s a very divisive proposal. Government schools are secular, so putting in religious chaplains is basically giving religious access to government schools and young people at their most vulnerable moment.”

Prime Minister John Howard has ruled out suggestions that schools could apply for the funding for counsellors rather than chaplains. The scheme was to be an avowedly religious one, he told the media. “To call a chaplain a counsellor is to bow to political correctness. Chaplain has a particular connotation, people understand it, they know exactly what I’m talking about.”

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http://wsws.org/articles/2007/jan2007/educ-j11.shtml