Educate Together astounded at 'philosophy'

MEMBERS OF Educate Together "were astounded yesterday to see their philosophy of education described in The Irish Timesas 'a French model that seeks to create an entirely secular sphere within the classroom'," the group's chief executive Paul Rowe has said.

“This comment, attributed to a dispute within the Irish humanist association, is completely untrue,” he said.

He was referring to a report which quoted Dick Spicer of the Humanist Association of Ireland (HAI) as saying that a majority of HAI board members favoured “a French model that seeks to create an entirely secular sphere within the classroom, as currently practised in Educate Together schools”.

Mr Rowe said: “The Educate Together model of school is a multi-denominational model, in which the beliefs of all children are guaranteed equality of respect in all aspects of school life. A wide and rich programme of religious education is provided as part of Educate Together’s ‘Learn Together’ curriculum.”

He said that “far from being ‘an entirely secular sphere’ it provides a comprehensive eight-year programme that encourages children to develop their own identity as they explore religious and non-religious beliefs in an educational forum.

“The programme covers the main belief systems in the world and involves considerable discussion of religious ideas, festivals and celebrations.”

Educate Together schools also facilitated parents who organised faith formation classes outside school hours. “In this way many Catholic children are prepared for sacraments in Educate Together schools.” But in the Educate Together programme “no child is registered, labelled or separated by the religious identity of their family and no teacher is required to teach as truth a faith that they may not hold themselves,” he said.