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Old 15-11-2019, 12:30 AM
JustAnotherPrimaryTeacher JustAnotherPrimaryTeacher is offline
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Alright let me be the one to go into the technicalities here.

The Constitution provides that every citizen or person in the country has a constitutional right to profess, practice, or propagate his or her religious belief so long as such activities do not breach any other laws relating to public order, public health, or morality. There is no state religion. This comes with some restrictions (Jehovah Witnesses for example)

The constitution also states that 'The Government does not permit religious instruction in public schools'

With the context above, I would say your current situation where the mentioned 'peer pressure', recruitment, etc are valid concerns, however, not amounting to going against the constitution as it is not a form of 'religious instruction'

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/di...us-instruction

Definitely a thin line here, but I would think that unless there are any forms of 'teaching or instruction of a particular religion' in a school setting (which the school, especially religion-affiliated ones, have the responsibility to monitor this), the so-called situations, are not wrong per se, as it would fall under the constitutional right of an individual to propogate or talk freely about his/her religion (which is different from one educating or instructing about his/her particular religion). Not allowing that would then be going against the constitution on the freedom of religion

Personally, I do talk openly about religion when the timing is right (e.g. if student asks about my religion during recess when I am spending time with them). I do not believe in shunning away from topics. If you want to avoid accusations of proselytising by other people, then you have to be vigilant in whether the things that you say, will be seen as you 'giving pressure through the abuse of your power/status', or is it considered a harmless exchange of ideas. There was a previous case on this in a military setting where the subordinates feel that disobeying their superiors who were proselytising to them, could set them back and be in a disadvantageous position. But I personally think that as teachers, besides religion, we should be aware of all the things that we say or do. Because as a primary school teacher, students do look up to the teachers and it is only right that we take note of the implicit learning that takes place. If you decide to be open and not avoid the matters completely (play safe but keeping students in a cocoon method), then you must be prepared to stand your ground and justify what you are doing, since you will definitely draw flak from the many people for many various reasons (as we all know how some teachers can be very political and with multiple hidden agendas..)

So if you feel it is too sensitive, even after verifying with the legal policies etc, then you can always change the topic when conversing with students. Otherwise, I don't recall any laws in SG for teachers that we are not allowed to 'touch on religion or LGBT' issues. I believe that we should be brave to engage in such conversations, but with the ability and continual awareness, to not instruct or prescribe to our students our own point of views on the matter
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