Three school admins reprimanded following probe – Edu. Ministry

Missionary visits to public schools

– says visits were “offensive” to students

Following a probe by the Education Ministry into the recent visit of the Faithful World Baptist Church (FWBC) Missionary to several public schools, which caused widespread public outrage, the administrations of these schools have been sanctioned.

The missionary’s visit to these schools back in March was heavily criticised with Hindu Organisations and Temples of Guyana publishing a joint statement in local newspapers, calling for the government to uphold the sacred boundary of “Church and State” outlined in the country’s Constitution.

“We are extremely concerned over Pastor (Steven) Anderson’s subtle and overt attacks on Hindus and Hinduism as we reflect on the emotional hurt and psychological damage done to Hindu students who had to ensure Pastor Anderson’s tirade against their faith,” the organisations detailed while reminding that Guyanese diverse cultures and religions are the country’s strength.

Acknowledging the outrage the visits caused, the Ministry of Education in a statement on Wednesday said a thorough investigation was conducted into scope of the incident. It was noted that the missionary visits to schools were brought to Education Minister, Dr Rupert Roopnaraine’s attention on March 16 and he subsequently order Chief Education Officer, Marcel Hutson, to look into the issue.

During the probe, the Ministry found that the Missionary visited three public schools in total and in each case, permission was granted via the individual school administrations without any sanction from the Ministry.

“The Department of Education had no previous knowledge of the school visits by FWBC, nor did it in any way facilitate the visits. The church took advantage of a lack of familiarity with regard to documented external visitor policy and the misplaced goodwill of administrative staff on what they believed to be an innocuous intervention, as well as a general ignorance of the church’s reputation,” the statement from the Ministry noted.

According to the public missive, prior to the conclusion of the investigations by the Ministry, a circular was sent out by Principal Education Officer, Immanuel Bridgewater, on March 24, to all principals and head teachers of nursery, primary and secondary schools underlining the need for strict adherence to the established principle of seeking permission from the Department of Education before any external actors are allowed into the school system to conduct activities involving students.

“All administrative involved were reprimanded for the lapse,” following the probe, the Ministry outlined.

Nevertheless, the Education Ministry, under which the Departments of Culture and Youths fall, pointed out that the issue brought to the fore critical concerns regarding the concept of separation of church and state in general; the constitutionally mandated right of students within the public education system to not be subject to religious instruction without consent; and issue of cultural equity in the state machinery.

“Whatever the context, this incident was unfortunate as it was offensive. There is absolutely no place for proselytizing – whether supposedly benign or overtly extremist – in the public education sector. Moving forward, it is the commitment of the Ministry of Education to establish clear guidelines against such incidents in the future,” the statement further detailed.

To this end, the Ministry further resolved to ensure that those guidelines are based upon three key foundations; including the Constitution of Guyana, which guarantees freedom of conscience as well as freedom from religious instruction within the public education system.

Another foundation is in the form a National Cultural Policy, which is currently in draft but will be open to public consultation within the upcoming months. This policy speaks explicitly to the issue of respect for all religions and the equitable inclusion of the concerns of the religious community into public policy formulation and implementation processes.

The final foundation is the revised Education Bill, which will also take into account constitutional stipulations on religion in the education system.

It was noted that the Government of Guyana as a whole, and the Ministry of Education in particular, recognises and values the tremendous gift of our unique and particular diversity. In this vein, the Education Ministry said it will continue to welcome citizen feedback on issues that impact upon that diversity and condignly correct lapses whenever they occur. The FWBC, which is based in Arizona, United States, is classified as a fundamentalist Christian group with a history of hate speech that has seen it being banned from entry from at least three different countries. American hate speech watchdog, the Southern Poverty Law Center has listed the church as a hate group.