OPINION:Having church-run schools alongside State-run schools is a win-win situation, writes TOM O'GORMAN
FINTAN O’TOOLE is consistently among the most interesting commentators in Irish life. Whether one agrees or disagrees with him, it is hard not to admire his intellectual honesty and his clarity. Which is why his recent column, in which he seems to be calling for State ownership of schools, but not for State control of schools, was something of a surprise, because the argument wasn’t as clear as usual.
Unfortunately, he doesn’t properly explain what alternative model of control he has in mind. Fintan writes that in this debate we are currently being faced with a “false alternative” of an education system run by the church, or one “run by bureaucrats from the Department of Education”.
“It ain’t necessarily so,” he says. Public ownership is not the same thing as “rigid State control,” and there is “an important place for voluntary organisations”.
Voluntary organisations, he acknowledges, are usually better than the State at adding the personal touch.
But the question is still begged: who exactly will run our schools, and how, in the future Fintan envisages? It’s evident he wants the State to own all the schools it funds, but would the churches be let run some of them, while other third parties such as Educate Together would run the rest? In running the schools, how much control would these third parties have over them? Crucially, how much control would they have over the ethos of the schools they run?
These are very important questions. But the most important question of all is whether the school system that Fintan has in mind would conform to the wishes of parents. All the indications, both here and abroad, show that parents are resistant to a publicly-funded system of schools that is run by the State and will often go to great lengths to remove their children from such a system. In addition, denominational schools are often very popular with parents.
For example, in England a third of state-funded schools are church-run, mainly by the Church of England. These schools are so popular that parents will sometimes have children baptised specifically in order to avail of them, and to escape the state system. Meanwhile in 1992 Sweden, exemplar of all things secular and egalitarian, introduced a system of educational provision which maximised parental choice, allowing parents to choose from a range of church and secular schools using the equivalent of a voucher system.
Interestingly, a study carried out last year by the Institute for Economic Research, a German think tank based in Munich, found that where there is a substantial Catholic school sector, educational standards in all schools are raised, specifically in maths, reading and science, three of the most crucial areas. Furthermore, where there is a substantial Catholic sector, the cost to the state of providing children with an education, including in countries where Catholic schools are state-subsidised, is lower than in countries where there isn’t a substantial Catholic sector.
In other words, a plurality of schools has multiple benefits leaving us with a “win-win-win” situation. First, parents have a choice of schools. Secondly, educational standards tend to be raised for everyone. Third, the cost to the taxpayer of education is lowered. In other words, you get more choice and a higher standard for a lower cost which frees up public money to be spent on health, for example.
Last year, the Iona Institute commissioned an opinion poll, conducted by Red C, which showed that only a quarter of people want publicly funded schools to be State-run with the remainder – the overwhelming majority – wanting a choice of publicly-funded schools, including denominational ones.
When asked about the type of publicly-funded school they would like to send their children to, a majority of parents (51 per cent) opted for a denominational school. It would be a very dictatorial state indeed that would deprive parents of this option when so many want it.
A third wish to send their children to multi-denominational schools run by the State. Others want to send their children to non-denominational schools. Most of these parents do not want to deprive other parents of the choice of denominational schools.
Of course, what this indicates is that the country is currently oversupplied with denominational schools, something the Catholic Church itself acknowledges.
If there is clear evidence that a majority of parents in a given area no longer want a denominational school then a way will have to be found of transferring both ownership and control of that school to another party, including perhaps the State.
Ideally, this plurality of provision is the best way forward for Irish education. Obviously every single choice cannot be catered for because that would be impractical. It must depend on there being sufficient demand for a given school in a given area before State-funding for it would be provided.
But allowing for as much educational diversity as is reasonably possible is better on numerous counts than a one-size-fits-all, wholly State-run education system.
It will be interesting to hear in more detail what Fintan O’Toole has in mind for our future education system.
Tom O’Gorman is a researcher with the Iona Institute, a non-governmental organisation dedicated to the strengthening of civil society through making the case for marriage and making the case for religion – www.ionainstitute.ie