Analysis: Constitutional rights mean change in school patronage is slow

The Catholic Church controls 90 per cent of Ireland's primary schools. About 6 per cent are under the patronage of other religions, primarily the Church of Ireland.

Recently there has been a major focus on the experiences of parents who could not secure places for their children in local schools because those children had not been baptised. The Government has come under increasing pressure both at home and from the United Nations to change the school admissions system, which allows religiously-controlled schools to give preference to Catholics.

In reality there is little pressure on school places outside Dublin. In most of the rest of Ireland parents have no problem securing places for their children in a school of their choice – but that choice is usually limited to a Christian-controlled school.

At the same time our society is becoming more pluralist. There are now more than 140 nationalities in Irish secondary schools, with one in eight students born overseas.

In many cases parents not only do not want their children to attend religious-instruction classes but also object to their children being educated within schools whose dominant ethos is not of their beliefs.

"Current rules do not allow children to receive religious instruction of which their parents disapprove, and religion classes must be fixed to facilitate withdrawal of children," says Sheila Nunan of the Irish National Teachers Organisation.

“But in reality all children are obliged to be present during religious instruction because arrangements for withdrawal cannot be made. Increasingly teachers find themselves providing religious instruction to some pupils while being expected at the same time to provide alternative activities for other pupils – in some cases a majority of the pupils enrolled.”

In 1965 the official Rules for National Schools Under the Department of Education changed. One, rule 68, includes these words: “Religious instruction is . . . a fundamental part of the school course and a religious spirit should inform and vivify the whole work of the school.”

Last year the Forum on Patronage and Pluralism in the Primary Sector, chaired by John Coolahan, emeritus professor of education at Maynooth University, made a number of recommendations aimed at providing more educational options for non-Catholics, including that rule 68 should be dropped, immediately; this has not happened.

The report also recommended that nonreligious patrons be considered for new schools, that some schools be divested to alternative patrons, such as Educate Together, and that religious schools in areas with small populations take steps to ensure they are inclusive.

“Divestment is happening very slowly,” says Coolahan. “The current system, whether people like it or not, is rooted in constitutional rights and legal frameworks, and there is no real appetite in any political party for a referendum on this issue. But I don’t see this issue going away.”

Coolahan is disappointed but not surprised that divestment has been so slow. “Local communities have been asked: would you like to give up your school? Of course parents aren’t going to put up their hand. Leadership is required from religious patrons, from the teacher unions and from local and national politicians, but this leadership has been lacking.”

The main problems are in the primary-school system, he says. “It’s less of an issue at second level, where there’s more variety and where religion is not intended to permeate the entire school day. Also, the children are older and can opt out of more religion with more ease.”

Fr Michael Drumm is chairman of the Catholic Schools Partnership, which recently produced a book on inclusivity of other faiths and none. “We want schools to read this; the ideas in this book come from schools where non-Catholic parents say that they have made to feel welcome,” Drumm says. “We want schools to be inclusive. But there are parents who have a problem with a faith-based alternative. In principle, choice is good but demographically it is difficult. Nobody has a right to a school that is in accord with their convictions in the immediate vicinity, but we can provide a system that is adaptable.”

Drumm points out that only about 20 per cent of schools are oversubscribed and says this problem won’t be solved by removing faith affiliation as the main entry criteria. “People want to go to certain schools because of perceptions about the quality of the school.” He says that the way forward is not in divestment but in providing greater diversity of provision when new schools are built, and in creating better structures for amalgamating schools, which would free up some buildings.

“Teachers are good people and are doing their best,” says Coolahan. “There is very little direct indoctrination or proselytising going on, but schools are hidebound. Many, underneath the radar, are adjusting and making the school less one-dimensional. And, while the majority of parents do want denominational education, the State cannot stand behind the fact that 96 per cent of schools are denominationally controlled, bearing in mind its international obligations.”