‘No’ To The Bible In Schools

IN response to Adam Hartman’s article entitled ‘Bible to be reintroduced in schools’ in your January 26 2011 edition.

(At the onset of this letter, I would like to make it clear that I am not arguing against any form of religion. I am arguing for our freedom of choice.)I find it absolutely shocking and offensive that the formal inclusion of ‘Bible study’ in the national curriculum, both at primary and secondary stages, has managed to slip through so many cracks that it has now come to a mere signature by our Minister of Education. I, as a high school teacher and a scientist, am appalled at this step backwards with regards to formal education. While I agree that learning moral values are as important in the school environment as at home, the indoctrination of Christianity as a form of education for public schools I completely disagree with. Firstly, I would actually like to see some statistical evidence between this so-called relationship between the increasing ‘moral decay’ of school children and the decreasing presence of religion in the school curriculum. Secondly, can it not be equally argued that a lot of ‘moral decay’ in human history has occurred as a result of religion?CCN General Secretary Maria Kapere says, and I quote, that ‘the purposes of Government’s RME curriculum is to develop knowledge of the diversity of different religious beliefs as a source of moral education,..’. How is teaching only Christianity reflecting a ‘diversity of religious beliefs’? What happened to freedom of choice? As said in the article, ‘Bible study’ was removed from the curriculum after Independence as reflected by our constitutional rights.Kapere then goes on to say ‘children are obliged to go to school, but are not obliged to go to church. Without them knowing it, they are being withheld from the truth written in the Bible’. This statement infers that EVERY citizen in Namibia should take the Bible as the truth. I am sure that we can all agree that this is not true. Teaching the Bible to primary school learners is pure indoctrination of a specific belief system, one that is entirely based on faith. This is blatant propaganda. Many aspects of the Bible, if taught incorrectly to secondary learners, are contradictory to many other subjects they may be taking, e.g. Geography, Biology, Physical Science. These inclusions should be a choice by the parents and the children, not a method of force. I believe strongly that faith is a concept that should be grasped through upbringing, and perhaps through life choices when a child is old enough to decide what they believe in. While I agree that many moral values can be drawn from the Bible, these same moral values can be taught without the Bible.The first year of my primary education included ‘Bible study’, just before it was removed during Independence. These messages often contradicted my home belief system and I was reprimanded many times by my teacher for having bad marks and not understanding various aspects. I am grateful that these were removed and that I was given the beautiful opportunity to make my own decisions regarding my belief system. If religion is going to be a subject, then teach all religions, and make it optional. And even then, if taught by only one teacher, content will always be transparently subjective.As for the justification of ‘Bible study’ piggy-backing off moral values: I am a law-abiding, proudly Namibian citizen who has never harmed a fly. I don’t believe in the Bible, I have my own standard of moral values that align with the law. And I am sure there are many of us out there who haven’t needed the Bible to teach us what is right and what is wrong.Justine BrabyVia e-mail