Parents don’t want children to feel left out: Quinn

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn says many children still only take part in Catholic ceremonies as parents do not want them feeling left out.

While work has started on the handover of Catholic schools in towns where more choice can be provided, the views of parents will be sought next month on how to make faith-based primary schools more inclusive for children of different or no religions.

Mr Quinn told delegates from 19 countries at a University College Cork conference on religious education, that many people whose children are in a school — that they have no choice but to attend — want faith formation done in the parish instead of the classroom.

There are around 1,700 such ‘standalone’ schools among the country’s 3,250 primary schools but the minister said when faith formation takes place in class, it very clearly identifies children as ‘them’ and ‘us’.

“Most parents want the best for their children, [they] don’t necessarily want their children to stand out and be different, to look awkward, and therefore they reluctantly in many cases allow their children to participate or even nominally go through the process.”

Mr Quinn said 84% of people identified themselves in the last census as Catholic but a survey found around 67% of people would conform to the profile of being Catholic.

“I think people who currently occupy the conservative Catholic space in this country do need to ask themselves, if they want to hold on to the monopoly of Catholic faith formation, how successful are they in transferring that faith formation from one generation to another, and what is the level of adherence and belief of engagement in the Catholic school.

“Many principals and teachers in post-primary schools will offer the view that, while they teach religion, they’re not so sure it’s being absorbed or that young people are adhering to it.”

The public consultation will be based around issues in an information leaflet being finalised by the Department of Education and the National Parents’ Council-Primary.

It follows Mr Quinn’s commitment in Jun 2012 to consult publicly on the findings of the Forum on Patronage and Pluralism in the Primary Sector. Its report pointed to difficulties for families but to send their children to Catholic or other denominational primary schools, despite not being of that faith.

“I think what concerns parents foremost about going to a Catholic school is the overt intrusion of the faith formation that they perceive at some times and in some places. And that’s where delicate and diplomatic engagement has to take place, and every school will be different and every bishop will be different,” the minister said.

He plans to prepare a White Paper on the issue, taking account of submissions received in the public consultation. It was to have started last autumn but was postponed to avoid confusion with parental surveys on primary patronage.

In 28 out of 43 areas surveyed, there was enough demand for choice to ask the Catholic bishop to make one local school building available to a new patron. Mr Quinn wants the handover of some schools to begin by Sept 2014.