Sunday, April 01, 2012

Quinn backs school model despite religious concerns

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn has backed the new type of state-run primary school despite concerns about religious teaching.

Community national schools will operate under the patronage of vocational education committees once the necessary law is passed.

But five are currently managed on a pilot basis by the VECs in counties Dublin, Kildare and Meath.

Mr Quinn announced this month that four of the 14 new primary schools to open this year and in 2013 will be community national schools.

But multi-denominational schools group Educate Together said the new model should not be expanded until concerns are addressed.

Its chief executive, Paul Rowe, said the design of the model was fundamentally flawed by the requirement for faith formation during school hours.

He said it is impossible to treat children equally as long as they are separated for religion classes or faith formation according to their beliefs. Mr Rowe called for the publication of evaluation reports that were to have been produced within the first five years of the pilot scheme.

His comments followed publication of Department of Education files, released to RTÉ News under the Freedom of Information Act. 

They show a commitment was made in 2008 by then education minister Batt O’Keeffe to Catholic bishops’ representatives, that a faith-specific religions education programme would be provided for Catholic pupils of the new school model if parents wanted it.

However, they also show that after concerns about segregation were raised, a different system was adopted in practice.

In community national schools, faith-specific classes are provided for Catholic, Muslim and Hindu pupils, if chosen by parents. 

But all children in the schools participate together in a multi-faith religion programme.

"While the minister was not in government when the model was approved, he is satisfied it is operating in an inclusive fashion which will allow it to grow and develop in accordance with the wishes of parents and communities," a spokesperson for Mr Quinn said.