Religious faith formation plays a major role in Ireland’s taxpayer-funded primary education system. This is highly unusual in a democratic country, and teachers are making their voices heard on the issue. About 90 per cent of primary schools are controlled by the Catholic Church. Sacramental preparation for Confession, Communion and Confirmation presents challenges for teachers, especially those who don’t share the faith.
A recent survey by the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) uncovered some interesting findings and related recommendations from an INTO taskforce, which have given the union plenty of homework. The survey asked 34 questions related to religion in schools.
Seventy seven per cent of respondent teachers said schools should have no responsibility at all for preparing children for the sacraments, while only 4 per cent thought it should be left to the primary school. A vast amount of class time is dedicated to sacramental preparation, with knock-on effects for other subjects in an already overloaded curriculum. Communion and Confirmation practice eat into the school day for months in advance, ramping up as the day approaches.
But for many teachers there is also the gnawing issue of the children who are left out. Ireland has changed as a society – children come from a wide variety of backgrounds. In so many ways, our schools are places of inclusiveness and understanding, but this goes out the window when it comes to religion. Children from outside the shrinking Catholic mainstream can find themselves excluded for lengthy periods, or forced to set their own identity aside.
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With no guidance from the Minister for Education, Helen McEntee, few – if any – schools have found a satisfactory way to cater for the many children not partaking in sacramental preparation. These children tend to find themselves herded together and assigned pointless busywork for what adds up to a huge amount of class time. Then on the “big day” they sit on the sidelines and watch as their peers get dressed up and enjoy their celebration. Many teachers feel conflicted about their role in this institutionalised othering.
The INTO taskforce has recommended that the union work to move sacramental preparation outside the school day. However, the recommendation that it “engage with” religious patrons in this regard seems like it is starting in the wrong direction. Shouldn’t fundamental decisions on the curriculum primarily involve the Minister for Education?
Elsewhere, some of the taskforce’s recommendations don’t appear to me to make much sense. On the simple question of “should faith formation take place in primary schools?” 33 per cent of respondents said they “teach religion willingly”; 19.5 per cent said they would prefer not to have to teach it and 19 per cent said “I would teach a broad religious education willingly”, but would prefer not to have to teach it in a particular faith.
Yet, other than the issue of sacramental preparation, faith formation in schools seems to have been largely ignored by the taskforce.
In almost 90 per cent of schools, the Catholic faith is supposed to be taught for 30 minutes every single day. This is more time than history, geography and science combined. Then there are daily prayers, trips to church, clerical visits and more.
As with sacramental preparation, the Department of Education has provided no guidance on how schools should accommodate non-Catholic children during these times. In truth, in most schools, the “opted-out” children just sit there – sometimes colouring a picture, sometimes doodling with a puzzle book, listening to every word regardless – segregated, othered and marked as different. The obvious answer, surely, is simply to move faith formation outside the school day and let families “opt-in”, should they wish. This is an inclusive solution that could not offend anyone.
The INTO taskforce has inexplicably ignored the responses on faith formation in the survey and based most of its recommendations on the failed policy of divestment. There are obvious reasons divestment, pursued by successive governments since 2012, has failed. First, it is logistically and financially impossible to build a school system where all families will have access to a school that aligns with their religious outlook. Second, and more importantly, building an entire balkanised school system on a foundation of religious difference among children is patently wrong. Ireland is forging a lonely path internationally with this policy.
The teaching profession in Ireland is monocultural – it reflects neither the diversity of Irish society nor our own classrooms. The taskforce’s recommendation that the union must “campaign and advocate for the removal of section 37.1 of the Employment Equality Act in its entirety” is welcome. This regrettable piece of legislation creates the vague, indefinable transgression of “undermining the religious ethos” of a school. Moreover, teachers can face any “action which is reasonably necessary” as a consequence. What does this mean? Sanction, loss of promotion prospects and dismissal?
Understandably, most teachers don’t want to find out. The result is a compliant workforce afraid to do anything that might fall foul of this obscure, discriminatory law. The chilling effect on teachers acts as an obvious barrier to entry to the profession at a time of catastrophic teacher shortages.
“Endeavouring” and “campaigning” are not enough. The union must prioritise ending sacramental preparation in schools and the repeal of section 37.1. It needs to abandon the failed policy of divestment and focus on moving faith formation outside school hours: a real, practical change that will benefit teachers and children alike.
Paddy Monahan is a teacher, Social Democrats councillor and policy officer with Education Equality
