The area of primary education has for decades been fraught with pitfalls for the rapidly increasing non-religious community.
This
community is now larger than all of the other non-Catholics of our
State added together.
Apart from a comparative handful of Educate
Together (ET) schools, we have no choice but to send our children to
religious-run schools.
The problem with the denominational-run
schools is that they rarely accommodate withdrawal of children from
religious instruction, and do not provide non-religious moral education.
Both of these rights are in the Irish constitution but are ignored by
most school principals, managers and patrons.
This is not to deny
that some schools do make an effort but they are very much the
exception, and it is strange that in a society which is increasingly
focused on childrens' rights this injustice is overlooked.
Overlooked not just by the schools, even civil and human-rights watchdogs make little play with this discrimination.
The
Catholic Church has indicated it is willing to help solve the situation
by making available to the State a network of school structures.
The
State, through the piloting of the VEC primary schools, is developing a
model where the constitutional rights of the non-religious are
respected.
At last we can see the possibility of primary schools
worthy to be called national. The quid pro quo for the Catholic Church
handing over its schools is that they wish to see Catholics and those of
other faiths receive instruction during the school day, with the
non-religious receiving moral education.
In the economic
circumstances facing us, possibly for decades to come, I believe that
this offer and the concomitant VEC model should be welcomed as a
national solution.
The VEC community national school model differs
from the present practice in ET schools where religious instruction
takes place outside the school day, but I feel that they should not be
rejected on that basis.
The Humanist Association of Ireland
has been involved in the evolution of the religious education programme
over the past two years, and that module and the school practice in my
opinion meets the constitutional requirements of the non-religious
community.
The Humanist Association has however now decided, and
stated, that they would rather not have the schools if religion is to be
taught during the school day. I consider this to be naive, utopianism
at best and a churlish radicalism at worst.
The State, in setting
up these schools, made the scheme conditional on the schools meeting the
needs of the non-religious community.
As there is now no organisation
speaking with the wider interests of the non-religious in mind, it
behoves the Department of Education to assess whether it does indeed
meet our needs.
The appointment of an independent assessor would hopefully clarify this and ensure their future development.
These
schools are the minimum that can be expected from a state which until
now has not issued regulations to all primary schools obliging them to
respect our constitutional rights.
That option is still
theoretically open to the State, but in the real world I believe the VEC
primary schools are the nearest we will get to a solution.
I
welcome the department's initiative in coming up with this major reform
of Irish education, which all political parties should support.
-
Dick Spicer has resigned as chairperson and director of the Humanist
Association of Ireland in protest at its opposition to the VEC primary
schools
SIC: II/IE