Sir, – It has to count for something when a law lecturer at NUI Galway declares that the Constitution of Ireland is itself the basis for a range of egregious abuses of human rights in our national school system ("Treatment of non-Catholics urgent human rights issue", Education, May 13th).
Eoin Daly mentions divestment of schools in the context of dealing with the situation. I would go further. I would abolish the so-called patronage system in primary schools altogether, and bring all national schools under the direct control of the Department of Education. They are, after all, funded by all the people through the auspices of the same department.
The patronage system is totally unsuitable for the modern world. Just as religious zealots on a solo run can make a mockery of the efforts of some church people to have inclusion where a religious body has the management of a school, so there is nothing to prevent a teacher with what is to him or her a pressing ideological issue of a more secular nature from indoctrinating young, unformed minds in any school that has a patron other than the State itself. This is because right now there are no standards that would protect our children from any ideology until such time as they are in a position to make judgments themselves on the matters concerned.
One way or the other it is indefensible that the Constitution is being abused in the manner described to deprive one section of the community of its human rights. – Yours, etc,
SEAMUS McKENNA,
Farrenboley Park,
Windy Arbour, Dublin 14.