This is the story that NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli doesn't want you to hear.
Late last month the NSW Department of Education and Communities made a quiet but significant change to the student enrolment form for public schools.
In 2012 the O'Farrell government caved in to demands from Fred Nile and introduced an enrolment process that treated ethics classes (SEE) as a second-class alternative to scripture (SRE) (See: "Opting out of religion only way in to ethics", SMH, 5 December 2012).
Parents were only to be advised about the existence of ethics classes at their child's school after they had indicated that they did not wish their child to attend scripture.
Now common sense has prevailed over the whims of Fred Nile and a single form has been introduced that allows parents to clearly identify whether they wish their child to attend SRE or SEE, or non-scripture where ethics are not available.
See new form here: http://www.schools.nsw.edu.au/media/downloads/gotoschool/enrolment/detsef.pdf
Greens NSW MP John Kaye said: "For two years the public school enrolment process has been thrown into confusion just to appease Fred Nile and keep safe his vote in the Upper House.