Madam, – While I agree with much of what Orlaith Carmody outlines (Education Today, September 29th), I believe it is incorrect for her to state, “We have privately managed schools where education is provided by the State, and where after that parents choose to have a particular ethos, Catholic, Protestant or other, taught to their children at their own expense”.
Many Protestant families simply have no choice but to send their children to fee-paying schools. Out of 26 Protestant secondary schools in the country, 21 are fee-paying; these schools are all located within just 13 counties. Most of the Protestant secondary schools are therefore fee-paying as they have to accommodate boarders from a vast geographic catchment area.
Many parents of Protestant children thus have little choice but to send their children to fee-paying schools.
Recent moves by the Minister for Education, as well as proposed actions in the McCarthy report, will punish parents of Protestant children not just for choosing to send their child to a school of suitable religious ethos but also because the State cannot or will not provide schools of either a suitable religious ethos or of no religious ethos at all. – Yours, etc,