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A statement by Asian-Pacific religious leaders looks set to increase pressure on New Zealand's Ministry of Education to make all schools teach about the world's diverse religions.
The 164 leaders from 15 countries issued a declaration yesterday, at the end of a three-day meeting at Waitangi, urging all governments to include "education about religions" in the curriculums of all schools, including religious schools.
The call is a central part of an "action plan" designed to reduce international conflict and terrorism by increasing public understanding of the world's diverse religions.
In New Zealand, the draft national curriculum issued last year requires schools to teach about "cultural diversity" but does not explicitly mention religions.
Race Relations Commissioner Joris de Bres said yesterday that he would now pass the Waitangi declaration to the Ministry of Education, which is due to issue a final version of the new curriculum in September.
"There is a general reference to cultural diversity in the draft curriculum which I hope will be more strongly referenced in the final curriculum," he said. "It would help to have an explicit reference to religious diversity."
A ministry spokesman, Vince Cholewa, said there was nothing to stop schools teaching about religions if they chose to. Religious studies is available as a subject for the National Certificate of Educational Achievement.
The Waitangi action plan suggests that religious leaders, educationalists and interfaith groups should develop consensus guidelines on how students should be taught about religions, including "fairness, accuracy and balance".
It also recommends less formal initiatives such as "twinning" schools from different religions and bringing students from different faiths together in community service.
It also calls on the media to include guidelines for reporting on different religions in their voluntary codes of conduct, and suggests journalist exchange programmes around the Asia-Pacific region. Mr de Bres said the Human Rights Commission had asked the Press Council to encourage voices from the country's various cultural communities in the media.
He said the Journalists Training Organisation was developing training modules on reporting religious and cultural diversity and a multicultural news service was being considered, possibly pooling news from non-English-language news outlets for circulation to the mainstream media.
Destiny Church Bishop Brian Tamaki said he was "deeply disappointed but not surprised" that the New Zealand delegation at the Waitangi meeting did not give other delegates his own "Waitangi Declaration", handed to delegation leader Manuka Henare on Tuesday, declaring New Zealand was "a Christian nation".
Dr Henare said: "It was a New Zealand issue and their request didn't fit into the agenda of the interfaith dialogue."
New Zealand's 21 Anglican and Catholic bishops said they were "satisfied" with the Human Rights Commission's draft national statement on religious diversity, which stated that the country has "no official or established religion".
Declaration
* We support education about religions in the public curricula of all schools, including religious schools.
* We encourage governments in the region to ensure through curriculum review that curricula meet guidelines for fairness, accuracy and balance in discussing religious beliefs and that they do not denigrate any faith or its adherents.
* We recommend that schools should promote non-formal interfaith education such as community service, twinning projects and community immersion.
* We request interested governments to implement pilot projects in religious education to be trialled in more than one country in the region.
