Sir, – Aoife McCloskey's call to remove sacramental preparation from schools is timely ("A teacher writes", August 31st).
Education Equality has been calling for the complete removal of religious instruction from our schools, including sacramental preparation, since 2015. As a teacher, McCloskey appears to agree. In doing so, she joins the growing chorus of voices calling for change.
Religious formation does not belong in the classroom. An increasing number of groups and individuals are coalescing around this simple, inescapable fact, despite looking at our education system from very different perspectives. And yet change remains elusive.
There are two fundamental roadblocks to reform. The first is that many influential figures within the Catholic Church are reluctant to cede control of schools. Its more conservative elements are quite comfortable with the current system of coercive evangelisation.
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The second is that the Department of Education has no greater appetite for change than the church does. And with an issue as contentious and sensitive as this, the Government’s calculation seems to be that doing nothing offers the least political risk.
The problem for both church and State is that Irish society is changing at breakneck speed; 50 per cent of marriages are now non-religious while less than 35 per cent are Catholic.
In an increasingly secular Ireland, reform of our religious-controlled education system can only be deferred for so long. – Yours, etc,
DAVID GRAHAM,
Communications Officer,
Education Equality,
Malahide, Co Dublin.