Ethics classes to stay in NSW: Piccoli

30 May 2012, 3:33 pm   -   Source: AAP

NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli says ethics classes will continue after moves to have them axed prompted a parliamentary inquiry.

Ethics classes are here to stay in NSW, with a parliamentary committee's recommending that alternatives to scripture continue in primary schools, Education Minister Adrian Piccoli says.

The NSW government flagged axing ethics classes last year in a bid to woo the support of Christian Democrat MPs in the upper house, even though Premier Barry O'Farrell promised to keep them at the election.

A Legislative Council committee was set up in November 2011 to examine ethics classes, after Fred Nile put forward a bill to have them abolished.

This same committee has now decided that ethics classes should remain as an option for students who don't want to attend religious education (SRE).

Mr Piccoli said the recommendation was in line with his previously stated support for ethics classes, which the former Labor government introduced in February 2011 shortly before losing office.

"I'm quite comfortable with the recommendation," he told reporters on Wednesday.

"As far as the government is concerned, ethics classes will continue."

Mr Piccoli defended setting up the inquiry, despite ethics classes being government policy.

"There was a difference of opinion about ethics classes. There's been a long debate over them for a couple of years and there's nothing wrong with a parliamentary inquiry," he said.

The ethics organisation Primary Ethics welcomed the recommendations, saying they are "consistent with the bulk of community opinion".

"The inquiry has been a helpful way to examine the issues surrounding the provision of both ethics and SRE," Simon Longstaff, executive director of St James Ethics Centre and a board member of Primary Ethics, said in a statement.

Primary Ethics has established ethics classes in almost 200 NSW primary schools.

Upper house Liberal MP Marie Ficarra, who headed the parliamentary committee, said the Department of Education needed to give more guidance on programs for students not attending religious education.

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