Sunday, April 03, 2011

Martin welcomes patronage change

THE transfer of some primary schools from the patronage of the Catholic hierarchy faces inevitable opposition but it is time for movement, said Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin.

Welcoming this week’s establishment by Education Minister Ruairi Quinn of a forum on the patronage of the country’s 3,200 primary schools, he said it would be foolish not to note that the process will encounter many forms of resistance.

"These may range from resistance to the idea of fostering greater plurality in patronage models, to resistance from individual communities, to resistance simply to any change from the status quo," he said.

He told the Association of Community and Comprehensive Schools annual conference in Wexford that an advantage would be that schools remaining under Catholic patronage would remain truly Catholic. 

He said it is not fair that teachers who have no commitment to the Catholic Church feel they have to teach religious education in order to get a job.

While Vocational Education Committees are already acting as primary patrons on a pilot basis, he suggested an extension of the community or comprehensive school model to primary level is worth examining.