School `reflects few Methodists in population'

Up to two-thirds of students at Wesley College in Dublin are Protestant, a quarter Catholic, while "the small number of Methodists in the Republic is reflected in the small number of Methodists among staff and pupils in the school", according to the secretary of the college's board of governors.

Ms Olive Thorp was speaking at the Methodist Church's annual conference in Belfast at the weekend. "We regard ourselves as an inclusive school," she said. Wesley had had Jewish pupils "almost since inception" as well as Muslims and, until recently, Buddhists and Sikhs. "It enriches the life of the college and broadens our understanding."

There were fewer children from stable family backgrounds and fewer who had experienced Christianity. Therefore there was a need to place a greater emphasis on Christianity for the college's community of 1,000.

A report on Gurteen Agricultural College, Co Tipperary, ad opted by the conference, said the governors intended that the college "will be one of those which will give continued service to Ireland, its young people and its rural community". This was despite a Teagasc report at the end of last year that fewer agricultural colleges would be needed.

The Rev Dr John Parkin took exceptions to lines in a final paragraph in the Methodist College report submitted to the conference, which said: "We have good reason to have pride in our overall education system" . . . and it was "vitally important that, whatever happens to the government of Northern Ireland, we ensure that our children and young people are given every possible opportunity and advantage".

Dr Parkin wondered what reason there was to be proud of an education system which retained the 11-plus, and said "it looked as though we are, through Methody, supporting privilege, selection, social inequity." He asked if "advantage" was a gospel word and suggested the paragraph reflected "a rabid right-wing political position". Dame Mary Uprichard of Methody's board of governors said they simply wanted to ensure "that decisions are made for all the right reasons".