Amendments to Special Religious Instruction (SRI) rules in Victoria’s public schools will make it easier for schools to keep SRI programs in place, with the state’s Minister for Education rolling back controversial changes.

Victorian state school principals now have greater flexibility to schedule Special Religious Instruction (SRI), with Education Minister Martin Dixon tabling his amendments in Parliament yesterday.

FIRIS (Fairness in Religion in Schools), a group advocating against SRI in public schools, has expressed disappointment with the changes, particularly the removal of the clause that stated “[if] the principal determines that the school does not have sufficient resources to meet the obligations set out under this clause, special religious instruction will not be offered at the school.”

The group had been reporting a series of schools dumping SRI programs following the initial SRI policy changes, with principals citing reduced interest in SRI after parents were required to ‘opt in’ their children, and disruptions to classes.

Now, FIRIS says the Minister is trying to make it “as hard as possible for principals to say they can’t schedule [SRI].”

A new addition to the directive states SRI must run for no more than 30 minutes per week “on average”, suggesting principals have the option of looking at running SRI classes for one hour a fortnight, or two hours a month.

The amended directive also stipulates the Minister may authorise the scheduling of SRI on a “different basis” than normal class organisation. This reflects the 2006 Education and Training Reform Act, which also provides for the Minister to approve SRI classes outside the usual class structure.

This addition allows room for running multi-age classes—a possible response to principals’ concerns of small SRI class sizes and disruption to regular class schedules.

Supervision for students not participating in SRI has also been clarified, calling for “normal” supervision requirements.

The requirement that non-SRI students be supervised by at least one teacher, who is not the same teacher that is supervising SRI students has been removed to “reduce the burden on principals” who already have to comply with legislative and common law requirements on the care and supervision of students.

Access Ministries, the authorised provider of Christian SRI in Victoria, says it welcomes the revisions to the guidelines.

“ACCESS ministries has always believed that the choice of parents to have their children receive education about the tenets and beliefs of the Christian faith should be respected,” said acting CEO of Access Ministries, Dawn Penney, in a statement.

One of the biggest issues taken on by the Australian Christian Lobby in Victoria was the apparent ban on lunchtime Bible studies and prayer groups —activities which fall outside SRI.

The original policy guidelines set out by the Department of Education, which sought to calrify the Minister’s directive, purported to restrict religious activities in schools outside of SRI. The original policy guidelines stated that prayer groups, religious clubs etc fell outside SRI and meant such groups could not be “led, conducted by or at the instruction of staff or parents/visitors/volunteers”.

The guidelines put the activities of organisations like Mustard, which run lunchtime Bible study groups in Victoria, in doubt.

However, the amended policy now stipulates that students may organise lunchtime groups and invite “outside speakers or facilitators” in accordance with the Department’s ‘Visitors in Schools’ policy.

Similarly, the original policy called into question whether students would be permitted to bring and display religious materials, including Bibles, at school.

The Minister’s amendments to the SRI directive explicitly state that restrictions on the distribution of religious materials in schools do not prevent students themselves sharing their religious faith or displaying religious materials.

ACL’s Victorian Director Dan Flynn has called it a “big win for religious freedom”.