Following a survey of parents by the Irish Department of
Education, 23 primary schools across the country will be divested of
their Catholic Church patronage.
The move is part of the drive to
encourage more choice and diversity in the types of primary schools in
Ireland.
At present 96% of primary schools are under the patronage of
religious denominations – 90% of which are Catholic.
In
2011 the Minister for Education established an expert group to consult
with people and to make recommendations on how primary schools can
become more inclusive of different traditions, religions and beliefs.
In
April 2012 the Minister Ruairí Quinn accepted and published the Report
of the Advisory Group to the Forum on Patronage and Pluralism in the
Primary Sector.
In June last year he started the
process to look at the possible transfer of some schools run by the
Catholic Church to other school patron bodies in 44 areas around the
country.
Of those, 23 signalled a demand for change
and the Catholic management of each of the schools will be given 6
months to provide proposals on how they plan to divest them.
Mr Quinn said: "We cannot ignore this call for change."
He
added that he was confident of a generous response from the existing
patron – the local Catholic bishop in each of the areas – to "the clear
demand for change".
In practical terms, it means that
in any of these areas, where there may be several local Catholic
schools, mergers will be necessary to free up a building for a school
under different patronage.
Where change is favoured,
the multi-denominational Educate Together is the top choice and has been
nominated as the patron for 25 schools, including in the five areas
previously identified.
Paul Rowe, of Educate Together, said the results clearly showed demand for diversity of school type exists across the country.
The
Catholic Church controls about 2,840, or 9 per cent, of almost 3,200
primary schools in Ireland – of which, the ones earmarked for change
represent only about 1 per cent.
But it could signal an important change
in church-state relations over school patronage.