Schooldays.ie - Ireland's Online Resource for Parents & Teachers

Parenting & Education in Ireland

Schooldays.ie - Ireland's Online Resource for Parents & Teachers

Parenting & Education

× Home Parents Associations About Us
.
Log in Register Forgot password? ×

Forum on Religion in Primary School Admissions announced


Posted by Schooldays, on 16/05/2017. Forum on Religion in Primary School Admissions announced Tags: Education And Politics Teachers Parenting


The Minister for Education and Skills, Richard Bruton TD, announced yesterday that he will hold a Forum on the role of Religion in Primary School Admissions on Monday 29th May, as part of a broader consultation process on the subject currently being carried out.


Minister Bruton stated earlier this year that he believes it is unfair that preference is given by publicly-funded religious schools to children of their own religion who might live some distance away, ahead of children of a different religion or of no religion who live close to the school. The Minister also stated his belief that it is unfair that parents, who might otherwise not do so, feel pressure to baptise their children in order to gain admission to their local school.

As part of the consultation, a call for written submissions which closed recently attracted almost 1000 responses from a combination of individuals, schools and stakeholder organisations.
In announcing the public consultation, Minister Bruton said that following the receipt and analysis of written submissions, consideration would be given as to whether any additional steps are needed as part of the consultation process. Today’s announcement of the half-day Forum follows up on that announcement.

Minister Bruton has stated that this initiative will focus on the primary school system as that is where the problem is most acutely felt. Invitations to the National Forum are being sent today to all major education stakeholder organisations as well as to every organisation or individual who made a written submission as part of the public consultation. However, in an effort to ensure that the conversation at the Forum is productive, spaces will have to be limited, and so anyone with an interest in attending is urged to respond early to the invitation.

Minister Bruton said:
"This is a highly complex and difficult issue, with strong feelings genuinely held on all sides of the argument. There are no easy solutions to this problem, with difficulties in areas including constitutional law, administration of the schools system and protection of minority religious groups."

"However doing nothing is not an option in my view. While only 4% of our primary schools are under non-religious patronage, 10% of the population in the recent census stated that they are non-religious, with this figure even higher for those among usual parenting ages. One third of all marriages now take place outside of any religion."

"My aim is to find a solution which addresses this problem, while respecting the very strongly-held and legitimate desire of minority religious groups to run schools which are genuinely of their own ethos.

"I hope that people will respond positively and constructively to my invitation to this Forum, and participate in the event in a spirit aimed at finding viable solutions to this complex and difficult issue".


Notes To Editors
Minister Bruton has set out four possible approaches for dealing with the issue, in primary schools in the first instance, including:

1.   A catchment area approach, prohibiting religious schools from giving preference to children of their own religion who live outside the catchment area ahead of non-religious children who live inside the catchment

2.   A ‘nearest school rule’, allowing religious schools to give preference to a religious child only where it is that child’s nearest school of that particular religion

3.   A quota system, which would allow a religious school give preference to children of its own religion in respect of only a certain proportion of places, meaning that the remaining places would be allocated based on other admissions criteria – proximity to the school, lottery etc

4.   An outright prohibition on religious schools using religion as a factor in admissions, meaning that all places would be allocated based on other factors. Read more here.





Comments

Ulla

(24/05/2017 16:54)


I find it hard to understand how you could teach, with no religion, in primary schools. Unless it was deemed to be a Atheistic ethos. How does a teacher approach the subject of nature/ history etc. without referring to our Christian/Judeo background. I think it is a very imprtant part of every person to have some idea of religion/spirituality through the educational system and teaching it only as a mere history subject would be avoiding the obvious. I do not think that only a Catholic ethos is correct but I fear we are going from being a Christian culture to" God " knows where .

Samantha Adamson

(30/05/2017 13:12)


I live in a rural part of Co Mayo, both my children attend a local Catholic school.I am a Protestant and my husband is Catholic. I reluctantly agreed for my daughter to receive religion classes and do her holy communion because I wanted her to feel part of the group/group identity and belonging and I didn't want her feeling left out.Because the Catholic faith is being taught in the school it is hard to escape it and she would have been the only child with that diversity had I chosen for her not to attend those classes. It was very difficult for me personally and my own family to be part of these unfamiliar Catholic rituals. I felt it unfair that there is a pressure for parents involvement and how the holy communion dominates over other important school subjects.There is the assumption that one size fits all.

Submit a comment

Please respect the terms of use of our discussion boards. Full terms here .
Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments. When you submit your comment, you'll be sent a link to confirm it.
Name Email


Related Links


The Education System in Ireland
Visit our Teachers Staffroom
Read what parents are talking about

Recent Comments


Tik Tok parenting trends (modern-parent, 28/03 14:45)
Nurturing Young Minds: A Focus Group for Parents on Enhancin... (impactfluid, 28/03 02:40)
July Provision Teacher required - Ballycullen D24 (MumOf1and1, 27/03 21:02)
childminding service (Little Ducks childminding service, 24/03 18:34)
Childcare place available D3/D9 (Marinominder, 21/03 12:39)
Public invited to have say on new Primary Curriculum (Catherine Smith, 20/03 21:52)
First Aid and childminding (yhowell, 20/03 21:19)
Uniform for sale (herringbur, 20/03 14:16)
Childminder Available Dublin 18 (JessR, 20/03 10:41)
Dublin 7 childminder available (Dublin 7 childminder, 20/03 10:33)




;