The next SoFiA Conference will be held at Twin Towns Resort, Coolangatta, over the weekend 22 to 24 May 2015. The conference theme will be ‘Religion in Education: Children, Ethics, Faith and Meaning’.
In the 19th Century, when the colonies were belatedly catching up with the provision of elementary and advanced education for their scattered population, this was a major, quite divisive topic. The viewpoint that generally prevailed was that education should be ‘free, secular, universal’, though most Catholics disagreed with this and set up their own system of primary and secondary schools.
It was only in the 1960s that Catholic schools and the relatively few other non-state schools began to receive significant funding from State and Commonwealth governments. In the following 50 years, government funding for non-state schools has grown exponentially and it now seems impossible for any political party to return to a ‘no state aid’ policy.
One result of this policy has been a substantial increase in the proportion of children enrolled in non-state schools, especially religious schools (35% of full-time students in 2013). At the same time, there has been increasing access by religious organisations to children in state schools through religious instruction and ‘chaplaincy’ programs (another $245m was allocated for chaplaincy in the 2014 Federal Budget for the next 5 years).
Clearly, many Australians are voting with their feet in support of these developments or, at least, appear not to be concerned with them. On the other hand, there are some diverse groups who are very concerned. Three such groups are: supporters of state schools, who believe them to be seriously under-funded; people who believe that non-state schools, both sectarian and high fee-charging, are potentially socially divisive; and people who believe that state schools should be entirely secular, with no place for denominational religious instruction or ‘chaplaincy’.
Indicative Program
Fri 22 May Registration 6pm, welcome
Rev Dr Ian Mavor
Sat 23 May Dr Anna Halafoff
Prof Peta Goldberg
Workshop sessions
Towards a Religious Education Wishlist
Sun 24 May Mr Kevin Bates
Workshop sessions
Towards a Religious Education Wishlist
Close 12.30pm
- Print and post a Registration Form with cheque/money order payment
- Scan and email a Registration Form and pay by direct debit (as per details on the form)
- Register online (Please note: an extra $5 is added to the fee for this option to cover credit card processing and other fees.)
< span style="color: #e36c0a;">Registration Form [PDF, 75KB]
Conference Brochure [PDF, 261KB]
