Sir, – I’m so grateful to Emer Nowlan and the many parents and volunteers who have fought tirelessly to create schools without a religious ethos (“Ireland’s approach to religious-run schools breaches many families’ constitutional rights”, August 19th). For families who want an equality-based education, and for those fortunate enough to access them, Educate Together schools have been a lifeline.
But we really should be honest about the scale of what reconfiguration can actually deliver. It’s likely that only a handful of schools will ever change patronage. That won’t solve exclusion for the thousands of children who currently attend (or who will soon attend) their local Catholic school but are opted out of religious instruction.
The patronage system is an Irish solution to an Irish problem, and the result is a parallel education system that segregates children based on religious affiliation (or non affiliation). But there’s a simpler and more immediate step the Government could also take: move faith formation outside school hours in every denominational school (90 per cent of all schools), so that children can opt out of religious instruction and not be set apart in their own classroom.
We don’t need a patronage model; we need a public education system, built for every child in it. – Yours, etc,
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MAEDBH KING,
Dún Laoghaire,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – The article “Parents of schoolchildren in Dublin and Cork back religious-ethos change” (August 18th) reports that Church of Ireland settings formed high expressions of support for ethos change among schools.
Ken Fennelly, education secretary for the Church of Ireland, believes that parents may have misinterpreted what they were asked in the survey, stating that these parents already thought their children attended multi-denominational schools.
Setting aside the problematic attribution of ignorance to the surveyed parents, it is worth noting that the survey question clearly defined “multi-denominational” as “non-religious patron”. In selecting this option, parents can have been in little doubt over their choice.
Fennelly goes on to state that “we don’t really do faith formation here”. That will come as a surprise to those of us with children in Church of Ireland schools, where the faith of the Church of Ireland is taught as truth and prioritised, and where contact with clergy is frequent.
Perhaps he would do well to consult the Follow Me Programme, taught in all COI schools, which explicitly states in its introduction that “the Bible is recognised as the word of God”.
Finally, Fennelly discusses commissioning further research to be better informed about what local communities really want. In the words of George Orwell, “To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.” – Yours, etc,
Dr DAMIEN DUPRÉ, FHEA,
Business research methods & global business (France) coordinator,
Business school,
Dublin City University.
