SCHOOL PATRONAGE:SCHOOLS AND school communities are under no pressure to transfer from the Catholic Church to other patrons, Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn stressed yesterday.
Mr Quinn – who said last year that 1,500 schools could be divested – said there was “no timeline” for change. “I want reform to commence. Let people – in their own ways and in their own time – make [their] choices.”
He said the phased and gradual divestment of schools – proposed by a report of the forum on patronage – would help to allay fears about the process. The report, which has been written to give guidance on how best to transfer Catholic schools to other patrons, was published yesterday.
“I hope and believe that the system [of divestment] will be inclusive; it will not be disruptive. And as it shows itself to be inclusive it will generate confidence within the wider school community and then it will be up to people to decide how they want to proceed. I have no timeline on this. I want the process to succeed and be secure.”
The Minister said he was greatly encouraged by the measured public response to the publication of the forum’s report. He planned to review the report next month. A White Paper on the issue would also be published by Government, in accordance with a commitment made in the programme for government.
In its first phase the forum identifies 43 towns and four Dublin areas where there is likely to be a significant demand for educational diversity.
The Council for Education of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference welcomed the report’s publication. It said it would study the report and “reflect on its various recommendations”.
“The report clearly affirms the importance of denominational schools and the continuance of faith formation, including sacramental preparation, in Catholic schools,” the council noted.
The Integration Centre described the Minister’s determination to overhaul the school patronage system as “brave, given the complexity of the system and the current economic situation”.
“It is of the utmost importance that this work is not left to stand alone,” said chief executive Killian Forde. The Minister must ensure it was the beginning of a process towards a system of schooling that fairly represented the people of Ireland.
He welcomed the call for a review of the opt-out available to schools in the Equal Status Act, which allows schools to refuse admission based on religion. “The Integration Centre would like to see this section revised so that no child is ever refused access to an education.”
He also welcomed the call to delete rule 68 of the Rules for National Schools. He said this rule, which mandates teachers to inculcate Christian values throughout their teaching, was “at the core of what is wrong with the current system”. The Iona Institute, however said this would “seriously weaken the right of denominational schools to permeate the school day with their ethos”.
Senator Ivana Bacik said “fundamental changes to the current denominational structure of primary schooling in Ireland are long overdue”. She was concerned implementation might be delayed however. “I urge the Minister and the relevant patrons to move swiftly to ensure that some increase in provision of multidenominational places is made immediately,” she said.
RULE 68 ON RELIGION: WHAT IT STATES
"OF ALL the parts of the school curriculum, Religious Instruction is by far the most important as its subject matter, God's honour and service, includes the proper use of all man's faculties, and affords the most powerful inducements to their proper use.
"Religious Instruction is, therefore a fundamental part of the school course and a religious spirit should inform and vivify the whole work of the school. The teacher should constantly inculcate the practice of charity, justice, truth, purity, patience, temperance, obedience to lawful authority and all the other moral virtues.
"In this way he will fulfil the primary duty of an educator, the moulding to perfect form of his pupils' character, habituating them to observe, in their relations with and with their neighbour, the laws which God, both directly through the dictates of natural reason and through Revelation, and indirectly through the ordinance of lawful authority, imposes on mankind."
