The National School Chaplaincy Programme (NSCP), is an Australian federal government programme which funds chaplains in Australian primary and secondary schools. The chaplains are to provide “support and guidance about ethics, values, relationships and spirituality”.[1] The grants are $20,000 a year for schools and $24,000 for schools in remote areas.[2]
Hindus are missing out big time on School Chaplaincy. Hindu students form 2.5% of school students in NSW but there is not a single known Hindu Chaplain in any of the schools.
While the NSCP is formally not religion-specific, the chaplains employed under the programme are disproportionately Christian. In 2011, one study stated that 96.5% of the chaplains employed under the programme were Christian, while only 64% of Australians identified as Christian (based on the 2006 census). By contrast, 0.01% of the chaplains were secular, whereas 19% of Australians identified as having no religion. Buddhism, the second largest religion, is followed by 2% of Australians, but only 0.03% of the school chaplains. Islam was followed by 1.7% of Australians, but only 0.9% of school chaplains. Judaism is the only religion which had a roughly proportionate representation, with 0.45% of the Australian population following the religion, and 0.5% of school chaplains.
(Source Wikipedia and Census)
