The Education Bill

Ethos is a complex concept in the increasingly pluralist atmosphere of Irish education, with its multiplicity of church, state…

Ethos is a complex concept in the increasingly pluralist atmosphere of Irish education, with its multiplicity of church, state, teacher and parental interest groups. The Education Bill avoided mentioning it altogether, preferring to talk about the "characteristic spirit of the school as determined by the cultural, educational, moral, religious or social values and traditions which inform and underpin the objectives of the school."

The churches are among the few bodies who seem absolutely clear about what they mean by ethos. At their unprecedented joint press conference earlier this week, they indicated that for them it meant the continued denominational control of the education system, with the churches and other religious bodies having the final say in the running of all but a handful of Irish schools outside the VEC sector.

The problem with this is threefold. Firstly it does not take into account the rapidly changing nature of Irish society. Secondly there is a need for some belated statutory recognition that the elected government which pays the piper of the national education system has a right to call the tune, or at least a significant part of that tune. Thirdly, there is the need to democratise the extremely centralised delivery of education.

As the dramatic collapse in vocations leads to priests and religious relinquishing the day to day running of most of their schools, the churches have to recognise that the obvious group to fill the managerial gap left are the parents. The churches may own the sites of schools; they don't own the education that goes on inside them. Under the Constitution, the parents are in the best position to make that claim.

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It is not going to be easy for churches who have fiercely defended their control of education for more than 150 years to start giving up that power. But they have to realise that on the eve of the 21st century increasingly well educated and independent minded Irish parents - whether Catholic, Protestant, Muslim or of no religion at all - are the best judges of their children's education.

Nothing in the Education Bill suggests any mass dismantling of the Irish denominational system, despite the rather wild accusations by some churchmen this week. On the contrary, it foresees a future in which the vast majority of schools will continue to be run according to the Christian teachings which form the dominant ethos of this country.

There are obvious problems with the Bill. It leaves too many unspecified powers in the hands of the Minister for Education. It does not say how the new regional education boards will be financed. It is vague about the role of school owners and patrons, religious or otherwise, and is particularly confusing when talking about the respective roles of patrons and boards of management. But these are imprecisions which can be teased out in the Bill's committee stage. The fears of the Church of Ireland, which have always been listened to by successive governments, can be assuaged. No good reasons have been advanced for scrapping this most important piece of democratising legislation in education this century. For democracy is ultimately what this is all about.