Ruairí Quinn’s moves to transfer some Catholic schools to other patrons has been well received.
THE targets may be ambitious but Education Minister
Ruairi Quinn’s signal soon after being appointed last month that he
wants to see half the primary schools under Catholic control transferred
to other patrons has been warmly greeted.
The Catholic
bishops, who are patrons to 90% of the country’s 3,165 primary schools,
have welcomed the Forum on Patronage and Plurality in Primary Schools
and agreed to participate and some of the impetus has already come from
within the hierarchy.
Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has
said that while the transfer of primary schools from the patronage of
the Catholic hierarchy will face opposition, it is time for movement.
The brief set out by the minister requires the forum to have regard to
the Catholic church’s expressed willingness to consider divesting
patronage of primary schools.
Although Archbishop Martin has
been to the fore, many of his counterparts are understood to be equally
open to the idea of divesting their patronage where there is a clear
need for greater choice for families in areas with few if any
non-Catholic schools.
The outcome of consultations to date in
some of the 43 such areas already identified by the Department of
Education — at the Catholic Church’s request — is likely to be outlined
in a position paper on the situation to be published by the bishops next
week.
The question on the minds of many couples, particularly
those planning children or whose children are reaching schoolgoing age,
is what choices will be on offer.
As National Parents
Council-Primary (NCP-P) chief executive Áine Lynch pointed out this
week, it may not be possible in smaller communities to offer a choice
beyond the local Catholic primary school and arrangements that respect
the belief systems of all pupils must be standardised. While there has
been praise for the accommodating nature of Catholic schools catering
for many years for diverse pupil populations, this question will have
to be considered by the forum.
However, the bigger question
may be around the method of selecting which schools could be divested to
other patrons in those places where there is scope to do so.
Mr Quinn hints at the need for bishops to hand over school premises in
the forum’s terms of reference, highlighting the restrictions in his
department on funding for new buildings and the need to make maximum use
of existing infrastructure for future demand.
The
department’s report last August identified dozens of towns where there
are a handful or more primary schools but none with a
multi-denominational ethos.
In Clonmel, Co Tipperary, for
example, there were seven primary schools and the population grew by
less than 1% between 2002 and 2006. So with little likelihood of a new
school being established, there could be sufficient demand for a school
to cater for non-Catholic children.
Under the Catholic
Schools Partnership (CSP), an organisation set up by the Bishops’
Council for Education and the Conference of Religious in Ireland,
research and consultations have taken place in many of these communities
where there may be potential to divest.
They have been coy
about releasing details on the process ahead of next week’s publication,
apart from saying that it has involved further analysis of parental
understanding of school patronage and ongoing consultation within the
Church with various stakeholders.
But CSP chairperson Fr
Michael Drumm told the Irish Examiner last August that considerations in
any such decisions will include local demand.
He said the
views of prospective parents and those whose children have already left
the school system would be taken into account, along with the opinions
of current pupils’ families.
The bishops’ education council
plans to analyse the outcomes of the research to date at a series of
regional meetings in June with representatives from all Catholic diocese
in the country.
But Mr Quinn wants the question of deciding
where and how to reduce the number of Catholic schools to be addressed
much more quickly.
Announcing the forum, to be chaired by
former NUI Maynooth education professor John Coolahan, he spoke about
wanting a report in October and the divesting process getting under way
next January.
A source in one key stakeholder organisation
described this time-scale — as well as the target of half of Catholic
schools being handed over — as "wildly optimistic" but added that it
might be no harm to set the bar high to keep up the pressure for
progress.
Of course, in the absence of legislation or
regulations, any such transfer of schools can only be a voluntary
exercise by the bishops.
Fr Drumm has said that part of the
exercise should be to clarify how multi-denominational and
non-denominational schools are defined so parents know what the options
available to them are.
These are intricacies which may be
examined in closer detail if, and as, communities are faced with having
to choose or express a favoured type of ethos for a new school to
replace a Catholic one.
But the next dilemma may be who to
appoint as patron, with the last government keen on the city and county
vocational education committees (VECs) becoming participants in primary
education, and leaders in the VEC sector appear equally anxious to widen
their role.
Since the first pilot VEC primary school was
announced by then education minister Mary Hanafin in 2007, five such
pilot schools now operate in Dublin, Kildare and Meath.
However, questions remain as to what further progress, if any, will be
made on legislation introduced by Mr Quinn’s predecessor Mary Coughlan
last year to allow VECs become primary patrons.
Educate
Together is keen to continue the patronage role it has undertaken widely
in dozens of communities in recent years, so there need be no concerns
about a lack of interest in taking over the educational role of the
Catholic Church in communities where demand exists.
The real
question in all of this is whether the minister can really get — and
keep — this ball rolling and achieve meaningful progress to allow a
greater reflection of our changed society in the structure of the
primary school system — something Ms Lynch in the parents’ council is
anxious to see.
"You can put things off and off and a whole
generation of children will have passed through a system that people
have acknowledged just isn’t the best," she said.