A rise in faith-based education and home schooling risks Australian children growing up without any meaningful exposure to peers outside their cultural and ethnic groups, a Labor frontbencher says. Source: The Guardian.
Julian Hill, the Albanese Government’s assistant minister for citizenship, customs and multicultural affairs, says recent educational trends are seeing some children reach adulthood without mixing with people from different cultures and religions.
Mr Hill says education could be among the institutions and systems which “militate against intercultural connections and deeper social cohesion”.
In a speech to the progressive thinktank the McKell Institute today, Mr Hill will say policymakers should consider extreme and conservative curricula some students will be exposed to, including through a major rise in home schooling since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mr Hill will propose new efforts to promote better mixing of Australian children from different backgrounds, including in sport, extracurricular activities and social events.
He will point to Singapore as a possible example, where deliberate policies and “co-curricular” activities bring students from different schools and diverse backgrounds together for sport and social events.
According to Mr Hill, 320 new Catholic and independent schools have opened in Australia since 2015, compared with only 279 new government schools. The proportion of students attending a school with a religious affiliation reached 33.9 per cent last year, representing 1.4 million students.
“If trends continue, we can expect to see steady growth in the number of faith-based schools, attended by a higher proportion of Australian kids – Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Sikh and more,” Mr Hill will say.
Home schooling registrations have grown rapidly in the past five years, up by 232 per cent in Queensland, 116 per cent in New South Wales and 85 per cent in Victoria.
“There are reports of quite extreme or conservative curricula being used, which gives cause for pause and reflection if this trend continues.
“What is being taught to these kids? Are they mixing with broader society?”
Mr Hill, who is himself a graduate of a religious school, will say he is not arguing against faith-based education, but rather raising questions about whether extra efforts to “strengthen bridging capital” were needed.
“Done well, intercultural initiatives will resonate with Australians, and over time should foster reduced prejudice and social polarisation, stronger integration and trust between communities and institutions, and greater resilience to hate-based violence and misinformation.”
FULL STORY
Increase in religious schools and home schooling could prevent ‘deeper social cohesion’, Julian Hill says (By Tom McIlroy, The Guardian)
