'Two-tier' education warning

INTO LEADER OPPOSES 'SEGREGATED' SCHOOLING:  "While a plurality of providers might at first appear attractive, it will undoubtedly mean increased expenditure, fragmentation of provision and could lead to the development of a two-tiered system as in the UK, with an elite private sector and the State looking after the rest." He warned that "a totally segregated system" of education could develop.

"I believe strongly that everything possible should be done to avoid this development . . . Segregated provision will have implications for societal cohesion and overall wellbeing," he said, and "the State has responsibilities for the present and future cohesion of society which it cannot ignore any longer."

He said community national schools "where all children can be educated together under the one roof and provided with religious instruction in accordance with parental wishes, offers an alternative approach".

Church of Ireland Archbishop John Neill of Dublin, while welcoming new models of schooling, said they should not be at the expense of existing models.

He emphasised the positive role of a religious ethos in schools and said it was "very important to say that minorities matter. They can be crushed in a situation where there is no distinctive input of their own."

He also emphasised the role of parental choice when it came to the education of children.

Archbishop Neill pointed to the increase in denominational-run schools in the UK and Finland, and to anecdotal evidence that Muslims in Britain were sending their children to Christian rather than state schools because of their religious ethos. Two of his own sons had attended a Catholic school for similar reasons.

Where his church may differ from the Catholic Church, he said, was in that they saw religious formation as a function of the parish rather than the school.

Paul Rowe, chief executive officer of Educate Together, said families were being compelled to send their children to denominational schools "against their conscience and lawful preference" due to lack of choice. He felt it was a matter of time before this would be challenged in the courts.

"The responsibility of the school is to provide a safe, supportive, and equal environment for the identity of all children in the school.

"The school promotes a range of high ethical standards whilst encouraging the wide exploration and knowledge of religious and non-religious belief," but it "does not take responsibility for the faith-formation of children which is seen as the responsibility of the family and their religious organisation, if any", Mr Rowe said.

This ensured no child was separated at school according to the religious identity of parents and that no teachers had to teach as religious truth what they did not believe themselves, he added.