Pressure is building on the Irish Education minister to establish a multi-denominational school in Dublin under the Educate Together
banner.
Educate Together, a multi-denominational body, promises that
"No child is separated because of his or her religion or belief system"
in any of their schools.
The Dublin City Educate
Together Second-level Action Group collected over 2,000 expressions of
interest from parents who are looking for an addition to the current
second-level school provision.
It held a public meeting to discuss the
plans this week.
Olivia Morahan, one of the campaigners from five Educate Together primary schools, told the Irish Herald:
"We want this school because of the whole ethos, it's child-centred and
it's democratically run and multi-denominational. From my own
experience, I've two children in the early years of an Educate Together
primary school and it's a very different schooling to what I experienced
growing up. There are demands on both sides of the city, so in the long
term the best solution would be one for the northside and one for the
south."
Campaigners said they are trying to pressure
Education Minister Ruairi Quinn to set a timeline for when they can
expect to see an Educate Together secondary school in Dublin.
The
enthusiasm for an Educate Together secondary school is thought to be
driven by the positive experiences reported by children coming through
the primary level equivalents.
Last month, the
Government asked parents in six Dublin areas to decide what kind of
primary school they want for their children.
The survey seeks to find
out the participants' preferred choice of school patron.
It will
probably result in a dilution of the influence of the Catholic Church,
which currently controls over 90% of the country's 3,000 primary
schools.
A similar exercise last year led to the
church being asked to hand over one school in each of the five areas
surveyed to Educate Together.