Recently, when discussing different schools in our local area, my grandchild asked why one particular school didn’t have a saint’s name. The question illustrates all that is wonderful and yet problematic about the primary school landscape in Ireland.
It is wonderful to have schools named after saints because it often roots them to the history and tradition of their area, like St Bridget in Kildare, or to a story of the faith, like St Anne. It is also wonderful because many Catholic schools are named after women and look how long it took us to get even the Rosie Hackett Bridge in Dublin.
But it is problematic for some people because it also roots the schools in the Catholic faith, and an increasing minority of parents don’t want that.
The Department of Education and Youth is currently running an online survey of parents and guardians – those with children in primary or preschool – teachers, and members of school boards of management, to try to get a better picture of exactly how many people want to change the current position of their school’s ethos.
READ MORE
The opinions of parents are also being sought on their preferred teaching language to be used with pupils – ie English or Irish – and whether schools should be single-sex or coeducational.
The survey is school specific, so if a majority of parents vote for change, a process of consultation about a change of patronage, among other things, will take place concerning their local school.
The Department has been here before. When it last identified over 60 schools where it considered the local population ready for change, they appointed facilitators to discuss the proposed options with all involved.
Eventually, only four schools divested from Catholic patronage. There were, and still are, lots of reasons for this reluctance, including the alternatives not being attractive to staff and management in terms of governance and reduced autonomy. But these are not the only reasons.
As we have seen in recent decades, Irish society is quick to embrace change when it considers it worthwhile and positive, even when that change is contrary to many of the older mores and traditions.
However, we have also seen that Irish society holds on to structures that it still considers valuable. A parent recently told me that he preferred Catholic schools because you “knew where you stood with them”. They have one set of beliefs and like them or not, you know what they are.
This sense of certainty, knowing what your local school stands for, is no small thing for the world in which we currently live. There is much talk of values in every area from banking to beauty, management to migration.
But what values are we talking about? There has been no discussion in Irish public life about the values that we want to underpin our decision-making, let alone our education system. The new Relationships and Sexuality Education programme includes, in its rationale, “creating a unique space” where students can “develop” the values needed. What values and guided by what? Wouldn’t we want to talk about that and not leave it entirely to serendipity?
In a Catholic school, we know where the values come from. They are over 2,000 years old, have spread all over the world and are currently in schools educating 67 million children. Our Catholic schools educate children of all faiths and none, and are much sought after in many countries as they often are in Ireland too. The values can be summed up very succinctly: we are all loved and it is our responsibility to love others too.
Because we have a responsibility for others, we strive for excellence in our schools and seek to educate not just for the academic, but for the full sense of what it is to be human.
A practising Muslim mother, in an area of the capital in which there are multidenominational options, told me that she chooses instead to send her children to a Catholic school, and is very happy with her choice. Why? Because the faith life of her children is not ignored and is recognised as an important dimension of holistic development.
You cannot claim to have love for others as a value and then not treat them with respect, no matter their ability, special needs, belief or socio-economic background.
The primary school landscape is more complicated than many would like to believe. The Department of Education, before any survey results, already has an action plan to enable more divestment from Catholic patronage.
The last Programme for Government had a target of 400 primary schools for divestment. With the projected reduction in the primary school population over the next decade, particularly in the west and rural Ireland, many Catholic schools will be lost to the sector through closures and amalgamations in any event.
Irish bishops, as the patrons of Catholic primary schools, and in conjunction with the Catholic Education Partnership – which represents Catholic education at primary, secondary and tertiary levels – are in the process of establishing a group to facilitate the divestment conversation.
This is motivated by the concern for the common good, and recognising the key role of parents in education. The Catholic community also recognises the work it has to do in supporting and sustaining teachers in our schools and has already started initiatives in that regard.
But what is the ideal endgame for stable divestment of school patronage in our society? In terms of plurality, I would consider a reduced number of Catholic schools, solid in their beliefs for those parents who choose them, complemented by options offering other types of educational provision for those who choose otherwise. Parental choice has always been the bedrock of our educational system.
Notwithstanding the current zeitgeist, ought the primacy of parental choice not remain paramount?
Dr Marie Griffin is chair of the Catholic Education Partnership
