Monday, April 16, 2012

Recommendations "undermine identity of religious schools": Iona

Certain of the recommendations in the report of the Advisory Group to the Forum on Patronage and Pluralism in the Primary Sector, “would seriously undermine the identity of denominational schools,” the Iona Institute has said in a statement released on Tuesday.

The proposals recommend the abolition of Rule 68, which allows denominational schools to permeate their day with their own ethos, and the amendment of the Equal Status Act so that the right of such schools to admit children of their own faith first, will be curtailed.

In addition, it is suggested that denominational schools give equal prominence to the religious symbols of all faiths and that prayers be, “respectful,” of the beliefs of all children.

The Iona Institute said that the report “makes a number of good suggestions about divestment of some denominational schools to new patron bodies.”

“Divestment is necessary to achieve better diversity of school choice,” it said.  

However, the statement also says that other recommendations undermine this effort, “because if implemented in full, they would seriously damage the ability of the remaining denominational schools to be meaningfully denominational. If they cannot be meaningfully denominational, then we will have less educational diversity, not more.”

Specifically, it said that Sections VI and VII of the report would weaken the ethos of denominational schools. Section VI deals with so-called ‘stand-alone schools’, that is, those schools which are the only ones to be found within a given radius. In the report, Sections VI and VII set out how to make such schools more “inclusive.” However, the statement says that this, “would be achieved at the price of their identity and ethos.”

The report recommends:

* The deletion, rather than the amendment of Rule 68 of the Rules for National Schools, which permits schools to permeate the school day with the denominational ethos of the school.
 
* That displays of religious objects, “ought not to be exclusive to any one faith or tradition but should have a balance, reflective of the beliefs of children attending the schools,” meaning that a Christian school could not display a Christian symbol, for example a crucifix, on its own on its premises.

* That Section 7(3)(c) of the Equal Status Act, 2000, which allows denominational schools to give preferential treatment to children of their faith, be amended.
 
* That schools be required to replace specifically denominational prayers with non-denominational prayers.

* That, “sacramental preparation, or education for religious rites of other belief systems, should not encroach on the time allocated for the general curriculum.”

Commenting on the recommendations, Dr John Murray of The Iona Institute said, “The recommendations in Section VI and VII present themselves in the language of ‘human rights’ but in fact they are a swingeing attack on the rights of parents who wish to send their children to meaningfully denominational schools.”

He continued, “If implemented, they would mean, in effect, that denominational schools could not permeate the day with their ethos, could not display Christian symbols on their own, and could not enrol children of the faith of the school ahead of other children.”

Dr Murray concluded, “It is to be hoped that Minister Ruairi Quinn will not accept these particular recommendations as they stand.”

Executive Chairperson of the Catholic School Partnership Fr Michael Drumm also welcomed the report.  

However, speaking on RTÉ's News at One, Fr Drumm added, "There are certain recommendations about stand-alone schools which may be open to misinterpretation and I hope we can clarify that."

In March, at an Iona Institute conference on denominational education, Fr Drumm expressed some misgivings about the draft proposals urged by the Advisory Group.  

He said, "It is not altogether clear what is intended by the recommendations on religious symbols, celebrations and prayer. If it is intended that all schools should heighten their sensitivity to the presence of children of all faiths and none then this is welcome.mHowever, if a more syncretistic approach is being proposed which suggests that all religions are the same or that a school should not give expression to its identity and should reduce it to the lowest common denominator, then this would clearly undermine the characteristic spirit of the school. The issue of divesting schools would then be largely redundant as the denominational identity of schools would be so diluted as to be irrelevant."

Labour Senator Ivana Bacik welcomed the report, in particular the recommendation that Rule 68 be deleted. She said she hoped, “we will see real change to ensure greater inclusivity, with faith formation or religious instruction classes taking place outside of the school day, or at the end of the school day.”

The Council for Education of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference also welcomed the publication of the report and said it would “study the report and reflect on its various recommendations.”