THE PRINCIPALS of St Benildus College and Oatlands College said they could not discuss the issues involving the four families.
Seán Mulvihill at St Benildus and Keith Ryan at Oatlands said it was school policy not to discuss individual cases.
Outlands principal Mr Ryan offered to discuss the Abdulrahman Ouadria experience at Oatlands if his parents agreed to it in writing, but they declined.
Both principals highlighted the fact that in every instance where parents are dissatisfied at the rejection of an application for enrolment of a son, they had a right of appeal to the Department of Education under section 29 of the 1998 Education Act. Such parents are always told this, they emphasised.
Both principals insist there is no discrimination at their schools, alluding to the many boys of Muslim and other faiths in each school. This is backed up by the department which, as part of section 29 appeals, investigated such allegations by Muslim parents.Oatlands, for instance, is situated in the embassy belt where many diplomats’ families live and a significant number of its students are foreign nationals, many Middle Eastern and Muslim.
In illustrating the difficulty Oatlands is facing when it comes to enrolment, Mr Ryan said that, on average, the school now has 280 to 300 applications annually for 90 places in first year.
“We are highly oversubscribed until 2024.”
Meanwhile, the school was bound “to uphold the ethos and serve the local community”. Last year it “decided to give priority to Catholics from January 2011”. But, he emphasised: “We are a Catholic school which welcomes all faiths.” Religion is “taught as a subject”. It was “not instruction” but where students “get every opportunity to express their feelings”. They visit mosques and synagogues as normal in their course and, if assembly is in the college chapel, that is because it is the only suitable place.
“Any parent has a right to withdraw” their son from religion class or religious ceremonies at the school, Mr Ryan said, though supervision in such cases may become the parents’ responsibility.
The school has “a strong ethos of promoting tolerance”, towards which end it participates in Schools Across Borders programmes, with transition-year students visiting Hebron or Jerusalem to gain an understanding of what is going on there. Students from Israel and Hebron (mostly Muslim) visit Oatlands in turn.
“But we are a Catholic school and much is taught from a Catholic perspective,” he said. This was made clear before any student began there. Parents and students would be informed of exactly what was involved at an individual “courtesy meeting” in the school before a new student took his place there. “Everything is on the table so there is no misunderstanding,” he said, “and it’s the same format at every meeting”.
These meetings usually take 15 minutes. Parents may then decline the offer of a place. The admissions policy is reviewed every year. Mr Ryan has been principal at Oatlands College for seven years and was at Synge Street CBS before that, an area of Dublin where many Muslims live.
While there is no evidence of discrimination against Muslim boys at either St Benildus or Oatlands, the experience of the four Muslim families reported above clearly indicates that demand among Muslims for places in such boys’ schools is not being met.
This has become a source of anger, even bitterness, among some within the Muslim community who, in their disappointment, have interpreted it as racism and/or discrimination.
Some are looking for a particular type of single-sex Muslim school that doesn’t exist in Ireland. But most would be happy to have their sons accommodated in the schools that do exist.