Consultations on a Universal Prayer for public schools underway

Dec 23, 2015 News

Chief Education officer, Olato Sam in a recent interview with this publication, stated that while a draft of a universal prayer for public schools has been made, currently, the Ministry is looking to compile responses of various entities before they come to a final decision.
The entities being consulted so far, said Sam are from both religious and non-religious organizations and stated that, “once the process is finished the prayer will be introduced,” relating that so far, the process is going fairly well.
It is hoped that the Universal prayer will be implemented early next year.
Minister of Education, Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine had expressed his hope that the universal prayer “will satisfy all three of our major religious groups.”
Since his announcement of the change, several religious bodies and organizations have come out in support of the Minister’s plans. Amongst those in favour of the change are the Guyana Presbyterian Church, Guyana Teachers’ Union and the Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha.
All were of the opinion that the practice has been going on for too long.
President of the Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha, Dr. Vindhya Persaud had stated that sections of her organization had brought up the issue of having universal prayers in public schools with previous Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand. She recalled that while promises were made, no follow up action was taken by the Ministry.
Initially, the Guyana Secular Association, founded by Ferlin Pedro, had planned to challenge Roopnaraine’s decision of keeping prayers of any form in schools. Keeping prayers within schools he said, is a “form of imposing religion. This is contrary to our constitutional assurance of freedom of conscience and belief, and that includes the freedom to hold religious views or lack thereof.”
However, he related that after consultations with both local and regional secular movements and organizations, they are now in support of a moment of silence.
The reason for this, he states, is that the moment of silence seems to promote, at least politically speaking, the interest of everyone.
When asked if a moment of silence is an option for the ministry, Roopnaraine said that it has not been put to him, but stated that it is his belief that there is room for a national prayer.
“Prayers start the day off with encouraging children and instill a belief in their selves. I don’t believe a moment of silence does the same thing,” he said.
Roopnaraine on the prevalence of Christian prayers within public schools across the country had stated that “if that’s the practice that is going on in these public schools, it is not a practice we condone. We are a multi-religious country and we have to realize that we have multi-religious children so that whatever prayer is used in schools should not exclude any of the religions.”
Roopnaraine added that the practice could possibly be detrimental to social cohesion as it imposes upon the religion of others.
According to the Constitution of Guyana, the practice of having Christian prayers in public schools across the country is in contravention of laws set out in relation to the separation of church and state.