For those who like mysteries the Irish education system is as good as any other; after eight years living here it is still something of a quandary wrapped in an enigma to me.

Historical Background

A national primary school system was set up in 1831 in Ireland. It followed the basic education, often referred to as ‘hedge schooling’, given to the Irish poor in an informal way often by priests, during the years of oppression by the British. The National Schools (NS) were therefore a breakthrough in education but the patronage issue was cloudy from the start. Intended to be multi-denominational with each religion being taught its own doctrine separately, rubbing religious shoulders with different faiths didn’t seem to suit the two main faith groups (Roman Catholics and Church of Ireland) after all and denominational education became more or less the order of the day.

By 1922 the Irish Free State had enough on its plate without worrying about educating its next generations, and the Catholic Church or the Church, which had gained popular esteem thanks to its anti-British attitude and link with nationalism, stepped into this role. The State paid the bills; the Church got free indoctrination of the masses, and the relationship was interwoven for the future.

Role of the 1937 Irish Constitution

The Irish constitution has much to say on the rights of parents as the ‘primary and natural educator of the child’ although times have moved on and later in this article it will be seen that while some parents have rights some have more rights than others.

It goes on;

1. (The State) guarantees to respect the inalienable right and duty to provide, according to their means, for the religious and moral, intellectual….education of their children.

2. The State shall not oblige parents in violation of their conscience and lawful preference to send their children to schools established by the State…

Try telling this to parents whose lawful consciences are violated by having no choice of school in their locality but that of a Catholic one, where their children will feel (hopefully not knowingly made to feel so, but it does happen) out of place, hard done by when ‘communion season’ is upon them and missing out on the ‘goodies gained from faith’, or when their child has to sit reading a book in class or in the corridor as the ‘non-religious’ option when religion class is on. As the Church (yes, just the Catholic one) controls 3,000 out of 3,200 schools it’s quite hard to find non-denominational education, especially in rural areas where the pressure to not be different is greater, and many parents feel pressure to have their children baptised just to get them into the local school. The problem is inflated due to the understanding and practice of the Education Act (1997) which, in effect, makes it compulsory for the ethos of a school to permeate the school day, ie, have an integrated curriculum*. A Constitutional Review Group (CRG) was set up by the Irish government in 1995. This group found the inconsistencies between what the constitution guaranteed on education and what the reality is. To quote from their report;

“With increasing diversity of religious beliefs and secular views in the State, Article 44.2.4 clearly has the potential in the context of an integrated curriculum (see *) to give rise to difficulties”.

The difficulties become more problematic with the continued rise in immigration which brings even more diversity in belief; how would the State ever afford to build the required schools it promises under the Constitution (Article 42.2) if all those different faiths – and none – demand them?

The situation isn’t all negative and a multi-denominational organisation, Educate Together, set up by parents in 1984, following demand for multi-denominational education, is growing in popularity; not only with non-religious parents but with those who wish to see their children educated and integrated alongside others, a system where religion is a subject to study, not be indoctrinated in. Educate Together (and quite possibly any State school set up), through a curriculum based on teaching an understanding of ethical, moral and social issues, is very likely to produce good citizens for the future; the mindset that children will turn into valueless, immoral adults unless dogma is drilled into them remains, even, sadly, among those in high places and not especially religious people. I would refer any of the latter to check out ET schools, where respect for others and their beliefs is a daily reinforced theme.

The issue of equality in education in Ireland is helped enormously by several conventions, councils and committees in Europe: the Council of Europe framework convention for the protection of national minorities, European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (C of Europe), and the United Nations: UN convention on Rights of the Child, the Convention for the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), which, as most of the other bodies quoted here, have asked and urged the Irish government to amend the existing legislation to establish non- and multi-denominational schools. One of the most important is, of course, the European Convention of Human Rights.

The issue of entry to schools by virtue of religious affiliation came to a head last year in North County Dublin where a large number of people from Africa had settled. Many of the children from the families weren’t Catholic and with over-subscription to all the local schools (run under religious patronage bar one ET school) numerous children were left without a school to attend at the beginning of the school year. Never mind the total lack of planning involved, the situation gave the appearance of a colour bar as the non-Roman Catholics were also non white.

As can be expected, The Humanist Association of Ireland (HAI) is most unhappy at the current situation in Ireland. Individual members have sought to promote and help in the creation of Educate Together (not least when their own children needed a secular educational establishment), to battle for equal treatment for the rights of non-religious parents not to their have children indoctrinated in religion. Currently, educational provision plays a large part in the HAI submission to the dialogue with the government (for full submission and details of the dialogue refer to the web site www.humanism.ie). The HAI also tries to facilitate Humanist visitors to schools which invite people with different beliefs into their classrooms.

Most recently on 27 June, following a conference on school patronage, the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, in a press release, reiterated his willingness “to divest some primary schools of their Catholic patronage, if that is what parents want... The Catholic Church currently controls more than 3,000 of the 3,200 primary schools in the State ... Today's conference is discussing new ways to manage primary schools in an increasingly multicultural and secular Ireland."

However, Bishop O’Reilly at the same conference was insistent that religious instruction must be exactly that, delivered by teachers qualified in their own religion and during the school day. Catherine O’Brien, Chair of the HAI, and Paul Rowe, CEO of Educate Together, questioned why such teaching, which clearly segregates children by faith of their parents during their teaching day, couldn’t take place after school hours.

The training of teachers is another serious issue in Ireland as most institutions are denominational (no points for guessing which denomination has the greatest number!) so once again people’s integrity is being compromised in their desire to teach if they are non-religious.

So, what the future holds is a mystery. Will Ireland be able to separate culture from religion and give the non-religious equality of treatment with religion? Will people be able to differentiate ethical behaviour from doctrine? We hope so and we will keep working at it. The weave of religion and state education in Ireland remains hard to disentangle but a poll reported on 30th June 2008 gives some hope;

“More than 70 per cent of parents would prefer to see schools run by the State with equal status and opportunity for all religions…Only 43 per cent of all those with children under the age of 15 would like to see the 2½ hours now spent on teaching religion each week retained”.

Ann James is Secretary, Humanist Association of Ireland.