Abstract
The aim of this chapter is to discuss the historical development of Special Religious Education, that is in-faith or confessional religious education, in order to provide background and create an understanding of the historical context. From the late nineteenth century the various colonial governments decided to move from a denominational school system to a system of free, secular education. This change was introduced in 1872 in Victoria and in New South Wales in 1880. One SRE/RI lesson a week, known then as “Right of Entry Classes”, but referred to colloquially as “scripture classes”, was introduced when ministers of the various religions were permitted to enter into government schools to teach students of their own denomination their specific religious beliefs. With the Australian federation in 1901, each state retained control of their own education system and the Right of Entry system was introduced into the six Australia states at different times and with different conditions as is discussed in this chapter. More recently these classes were renamed Special Religious Education (SRE) or Special Religious Instruction (SRI) with parents in each state being given the option of opting out of these classes and choosing either Special Ethics Education (SEE) in New South Wales or No Religion in both New South Wales and Queensland where the system has been retained. This chapter will discuss these developments into the twenty-first century and address the differences between each of the Australian states and territories.
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Gross, Z., Rutland, S.D. (2021). Historical Background and Structure of SRE in Australia. In: Special Religious Education in Australia and its Value to Contemporary Society. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67969-9_2
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