The Irish education system is dominated by consumerist values and is biased against poor people, the Conference of Religious of Ireland (CORI) has said in a new report. It also foresees the end of the direct involvement of religious orders in schools.
In a discussion paper on the religious orders' future educational role, CORI's education commission warns that "within 25 years or less, there may not be religious available to perform any school-related function, if current trends continue".
In 1995/96 fewer than 6 per cent of teachers in voluntary secondary schools were religious, compared to a third 26 years earlier. Of these, 40 per cent are within 10 years of retirement and under 5 per cent are under 35.
Given current trends, "religious have a relatively short time (at least 10 years but not more than 25) in which they can hope to have a direct influence on the education system."
CORI says "the values which are most influential in daily life in Irish schools (especially those at second level) are consumerist ones." The goal of doing well in the Leaving Certificate examination is prized "because it represents a passport to status and prestige in adult life.
"This is a perfectly reasonable calculation for young people to make because (a) society is highly stratified in a way which ensures that people's status and wealth are determined by the nature of their paid employment, and (b) employment prospects are increasingly determined by educational qualifications."
CORI says in this context it is very difficult for Christian values of equal dignity for all people, the holistic development of the individual, co-responsibility for the common good and the need to challenge injustice to find expression.
"The denunciation of excessive competition and individualism in a religious education class, for example, must ring very hollow to students preoccupied with maximising their points."
CORI quotes statistics to show that the Irish education system is, to a large extent, failing to meet the needs of poor people. For example, over 85 per cent of the approximately 3,500 young people who leave full-time education with no formal qualifications have "working class" backgrounds. A young person whose father is in a professional/managerial occupation is seven times more likely to attend a third-level college than one whose father is an unskilled or semi-skilled worker.
It criticises methods of allocating finance which ensure that the State spends considerably less on educating poor people than people from richer backgrounds; a curriculum which is much too narrow and fails to develop many nonacademic human qualities; and a points system which "reinforces an unhealthy competitive climate in schools". It concedes that one major obstacle to religious promoting radical change is their involvement in management, particularly in schools attended by middle and upper-income children. Nearly half of the children at single sex voluntary secondary schools come from these categories.
The document outlines three areas where religious orders should be working to advance "social transformation" through education. Firstly, they should be working to make an "option for poor people" central to their schools' structures and planning. They should work with community-based groups in deprived areas to prevent early school-leaving, develop adult and community education and highlight the structural injustices which lead to those areas' problems.
They should provide "an independent Christian voice" on matters of public policy which would continue "even if existing forms of religious life no longer exist." CORI's education commission, under Sister Teresa McCormack, has been doing this for some years, sometimes in opposition to other Catholic school interests.
Finally, the orders should "find ways of forming alliances with those who are poor and marginalised."
Religious congregations need to set strategic goals for themselves, the document states. For example, by 2010 "90 per cent of our ministries will involve working with poor and marginalised groups."
It says orders need to gradually move away from spending a significant part of their resources on subsidising schools to one where new educational ministries working with the disadvantaged are "receiving the bulk of the finance available from the congregation".