Has the Government maintained the principle of ‘secular education’ in the Education and Training Reform Act 2006?
One of three ‘cardinal points’ of the 1872 Education Act was to ensure the secular nature of government schools. The 1872 Education Act did not define secular, presumably on the basis that the community had an agreed understanding of what secular meant. Today, secular may mean different things to different people. It is for this reason that the new Act, while reaffirming the principle of secular education, defines it in modern democratic language. The legislation clearly states that the government school system is secular, and open to the adherents of any philosophy, religion, or faith. It specifies the curriculum and teaching in government schools will ‘not promote any particular religious practice, denomination or sect’.
