Sir, – Emer Nowlan of Educate Together labels the community national schools as "flawed and unpopular" (June 8th). Yet when established, they have proven otherwise. One recently established school has over 90 applications to enrol in junior infants for the 2016/17 school year.
I welcome the recent publicity on this new model of multi-belief primary school under the patronage of Education and Training Boards. Over the decades ETBs (and their predecessor VECs) answered the needs of the State to meet new and varying demands. A previous example of this was the establishment of regional technical colleges, which are now our institutes of technology.
Ms Nowlan states that the community national school model “relies on separating children of different faith backgrounds”. In terms of nurturing specific beliefs, this happens only for a four-week period in the school year and in response to parental wishes. Children participate in belief-specific groups where they have a better opportunity to focus on their own belief system.
For the rest of the school year, children follow a multi-belief programme, Goodness Me, Goodness You, which has been devised by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment in consultation with teachers, principals, parents and children. Here, all children share their belief experiences together, including what they learn in their belief-specific programmes. The emphasis is on inter-belief dialogue and increasing awareness of, and fostering respect for, their similarities and their differences.
I do agree with Ms Nowlan when she says that Minister for Education Richard Bruton is right to explore different avenues to address the growing demand for change. Educate Together has long bemoaned church domination of school patronage. It is now somewhat ironic that it should respond with almost religious fervour against State-based alternative patron bodies – the Education and Training Boards, which are accountable to local democratic control. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL MORIARTY,
General Secretary,
Education and Training
Boards Ireland,
Piper’s Hill,
Naas,
Co Kildare.
Sir, – What an interesting and thought-provoking letter from Fionnuala Ward on the issues surrounding community national schools and faith (June 11th). We do live in a pluralist Ireland and children of all faiths and backgrounds need to be catered for in our education system.
I suggest the following answers to Ms Ward’s concerns. The Department of Education to hand over all primary schools to Educate Together. Educate Together to establish a teacher education college to cover every possible religion in the world. The Department of Education to open a new set of primary schools to cater for the children of the Travelling community and the children from lower socio-economic backgrounds in Ireland.
The problem, according to the ESRI 2012 report School Sector Variation Among Primary Schools in Ireland, is that Educate Together seems to have very few, if any, children from the Travelling community and a very low percentage of children from the lower socio-economic section of our community. – Yours, etc,
Dr DAVID O’GRADY,
Killarney,
Co Kerry.