The Council for Education of the Irish Episcopal Conference has
welcomed the appointment of Dr John Coolahan as Chairperson of the
Advisory Group for the Forum on School Patronage.
Dr Coolahan, a Professor Emeritus of NUI Maynooth, is to be assisted
in his role by Dr Caroline Hussey, former Registrar and Deputy President
of University College Dublin as well as Fionnuala Kilfeather, former
chief executive of the National Parents’ Council for primary schools.
The announcement of Dr Coolahan’s appointment was made by the
Minister for Education, Ruairi Quinn, on Monday and follows his recent
announcement that he would work with Church representatives to address
the over representation of the Church in the provision of primary
education through a Forum on Patronage and Pluralism in the Primary Sector.
The Minister has also said he wants to see at least half the schools
currently under Church patronage move to an alternative guardianship.
In their statement on Monday, the Council for Education said that, in
response to the publication of data on Catholic school patronage by the
Department of Education in August 2010, the Catholic Schools
Partnership, which was established by the Irish Episcopal Conference and
the Conference of Religious of Ireland (CORI), had undertaken a
detailed process of research and consultation.
“This has involved further analysis of parental understanding of
school patronage, the preparation of a position paper on Catholic
schools, which will be published next week, and ongoing consultation
within the Church with various stakeholders,” the Council of Education’s
said. The results of this consultation are to be analysed at four
regional assemblies in June with representatives from all dioceses.
Saying it looked forward to being an active participant in the Forum
on Patronage, the Council noted Minister Quinn’s comments on the need
for an orderly process that respects all of the sensitivities involved.
Two weeks’ ago, Cardinal Seán Brady welcomed the Minster’s
announcement of the Forum but underlined that there needed to be
“dialogue and discussion about how that change may be effected fairly in
the interests of all concerned.”
Meanwhile, the Director of Education at CORI, Sr Canice Hanrahan, RSM, told ciNews that
it is important to recognise that “Catholic educators have great things
to offer” and that some of these include not just quality of education
but “the pastoral care of pupils, concern for their futures, concern for
their spiritual, emotional and physical and educational development”.
These, she said, are “at the core of Catholic education.”
However, she regrets that “the awful things that have happened in our
Church take away from all the good things that are happening and
continue to happen” in schools.
Describing the current and proposed changes in the area of education,
she said there is “a whole reorganisation” going on in the area of
patronage.
“We are in a state of flux, but very much aware of the change in the
state of the world generally and the change in the country particularly
as well as the change in the whole language and attitude of Church.”
The Mercy Sister, who is set to retire from her position as Director of
Education at CORI in June, said, “Catholic schools have to be about
advancing the common good”.
She warned that the current government was likely to “pursue more
vigorously” the issue of smaller schools, such as those with enrolments
of less than fifty pupils.
“We have more schools per capita than any other European country due
to historical factors,” she explained.
This, she said resulted from the
need for local parishes to provides schools within walking distance of
their pupils in pre-car days.
However, this is less of an issue now
when most parents drove to work and dropped their children to schools
close to their place of work, often bypassing small local parish
schools.
“I think this government will push hard to close and reduce the
number of primary schools,” Sr Hanrahan said.
This, she explained would
result in the Church, which is patron of 92 per cent of all primary
schools in the country currently ceding patronage in some instances
where schools may be amalgamated.