The majority of new or refurbished schools are Catholic, despite a growing demand for non-religious education, writes GARRET FITZGERALD
THE SHIFT away from religion among our younger generation is evident from the recent rapid increase in civil marriages, the proportion of which rose between 1996 and 2006 from 5 per cent to 23 per cent, and this year will probably be about 30 per cent.
While this rate is much higher in urban than rural areas – over 30 per cent in the main cities and more than 40 per cent in Dublin in 2006 – the rate outside the main cities also exceeded 20 per cent in all but eight out of 26 counties. This trend has been reflected in a growing demand for non-religious primary education.
Some of this demand can be met through the provision of new non-religious schools in the suburbs of the main cities and also in up to 60 towns – half of them in the Dublin region – where population growth may justify more schools.
Of the seven new schools due to open next September, five will be Educate Together or VEC primary schools, and only two will be Catholic schools. However, of the next 26 new primary schools all but one Educate Together school are to be religious – the remainder being 24 Catholic and one Protestant.
Of 41 schools to be extended and refurbished, three-quarters are also Catholic schools; two are inter-denominational, three multidenominational, two gaelscoileanna and two Educate Together schools.
In Dublin, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has shown sensitivity to the changing demand for primary education, stating his willingness in principle to hand over surplus Catholic primary schools to enable non-confessional schools (ie schools not attached to one particular church) to be established and the Department of Education is seeking to identify areas where such handovers might usefully take place.
But less than half of our population live in such growth areas, the majority being located in smaller towns or rural districts where no additional schools are likely to be needed, and where a choice of school is likely to remain impossible.
Under current arrangements, the only schools open to the children of this part of our population are those which in 1971 a Fianna Fáil government converted into integrally Catholic schools on the grounds that “the separation of religious and secular instruction into differentiated compartments served only to throw the whole educational function out of focus”.
As the secularisation of our society spreads, that 1971 arrangement entered with the church is likely to be challenged. In the present situation, the church can scarcely expect to retain a monopoly on primary education in half the State.
It is unfortunate that neither State nor church has been willing to face this reality by preparing for an inevitable challenge to our present arrangements, for the resolution of the problems any such change will pose will not be easy. Among the issues that are bound to arise in many parts of the country in the years ahead are the following:
What proportion of a local population will have a right to secure that a local school ceases to be integrally Catholic and become non-denominational?
Would this require a majority of parents or would a minority have a right to non-confessional education, with a provision for religious teaching for children whose parents seek this facility, outside school hours?
What arrangements will be made for the future ownership of the school? The local clergy provided or helped to raise the money for the purchase of the school site, so ownership is usually vested in that church.
A related issue for the church is that a growing number of teachers are not believers, so that the requirement that religious instruction for Catholic children be given by teachers is clearly undesirable. The churches surely have a duty to ensure that such instruction be given either by clergy or by well-qualified lay believers, many of whom are now qualified catechetic teachers.
That would get rid of the requirement that people who wish to train as teachers must present themselves as believers whether or not this is the case.
While religious studies should clearly be included in the training college curriculum, it is morally wrong that many joining this profession should be required to lie about their faith or lack of it to join the teaching profession. However, in such a new regime teachers should also be required to commit themselves not to disturb the faith of their pupils.
In conclusion, it would be possible for the present primary system to adjust to this emerging situation in an ad hoc way.
But that could prove very messy, especially as support for alternative school arrangements might ebb and flow in some areas.
To avoid such difficulties, both church and State might eventually decide that in all areas where only one primary school is justified, it would be better to arrange a general switch back from the denominational system introduced in 1971, while providing for religious instruction within the schools, but outside the school curriculum, as used to be the case.
Either way it is now clearly time for both church and State to start preparing for the future changes in our primary school system that will be required by the rapidly changing religious orientation of our population.
For this purpose, the working group on the provision of multidenominational and secular education that was recommended in 1994 by the secretariat of the National Education Convention should finally be convened.