The Ministry of Education has granted the local Assemblies of God Church and the US-based Book of Hope International permission to distribute literature in public schools in Guyana.

The distribution of this literature to children at the nursery, primary and secondary levels is a source of concern for some parents - who have written letters to this newspaper - and other religions.

Assistant Chief Education Officer (ACEO) with responsibility for Georgetown, George Gilgeous, told Stabroek News on Monday that Chief Education Officer, Ed Caesar, had granted permission to the persons distributing the books. The books are meant for children between the ages of three to five, six to 11 years and 12 plus.

But Gilgeous said that even with Caesar's permission the persons distributing the literature still had to approach the various departments of education and school heads, before they could do so. Noting the several complaints by way of letters to the editor, he added, "if it is against your religion, you don't have to take it."

An official attached to the Assemblies of God headquarters in Queenstown, Roy Richards, told Stabroek News on Tuesday that while they had been granted permission by the ministry to distribute the books, not every head teacher complied. Some head teachers, he said refused to allow the distribution to go ahead.

The Book of Hope International book distribution project, Richards said, was part of an international programme and Guyana was one of several countries being visited. He said that the work of the team from the US, which spent two weeks in Guyana launching the project here, would be continued by a local group.

Apart from the Book of Hope, children were issued with printed invitations to attend a concert at the National Park last Saturday evening.

Asked whether the book distribution was a campaign at conversion, Richards said that it was not. The ACEO of Georgetown also felt that it was not a religious campaign.

However, Chandra Gajraj, a leader within the Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha, said that the distribution of the books in the schools was part of a highly organised campaign to teach Christian doctrines with the aim of conversion.

She said that "as Hindus we are tolerant and respect other forms of religion but we would not take kindly to other aggressive religious persuasions. We view this as such starting with the impressionable young." She could understand how uncomfortable the parents of other religions would feel, she said.

She said that if the school was a private school run by a particular religious order preaching its own doctrines that would be a different matter but not when it was a public school.

Her concern was mirrored by Head of the Guyana Islamic Trust, Haseeb Yusuf, who told Stabroek News that Christians would be very upset if Muslims went about distributing their literature in the schools in an attempt at conversion. Distribution of religious literature, he opined, should be done outside regular school hours during schools' religious clubs meetings.

He did not think that the distribution of Christian literature to all children - including one of his sons - attending public schools was a principled thing to do.

The country's education system, Yusuf said, was not supposed to be biased in favour of any religion. He said that "what goes for one, must then go for all."

It was, he said, a policy of the Ministry of Education that one religion could not proselytize in schools.

In the past, he said he had to bring to the attention of the Ministry of Education that Christian prayers were being said in schools where there was a large concentration of non-Christian children.

Even on the issue of moral education, Yusuf said that he had some concerns about the manner in which it was being taught on the West Demerara. He said that persons paid by the Education Ministry were teaching moral education purely from a Christian perspective.

He said that he penned his concern to the then education minister, Dr Dale Bisnauth, but he never got a reply nor was his letter acknowledged.

The section of the current Education Act, which dealt with religious instruction was repealed in 1976. But the new draft bill has a conscience clause, which has some reference to religious matters.

The Conscience Clause reads: "It is not a condition of admission to, or attendance of any pupil at a public educational institution (a) that he must attend or abstain from attending any place of religious instruction or worship (b) that he must, if his parents or guardian object attend any religious observances or any instruction in religious subjects at an institution or elsewhere or (c) that he must attend an institution on any day specially set apart for religious worship by the religious body to which he belongs.

(2) Where the parents or guardians of any pupil attending a public educational institution request that the pupil be excused from attendance at any religious observance or any instruction in religious subjects at the institution or elsewhere, then, until the request is withdrawn, the pupil is excused from attendance."