The Education Equality organisation has said this move would uphold families human and constitutional rights to religious freedom and belief.
Spokesperson Simon Lewis told Newstalk Breakfast that he understands this is a ‘tricky situation’.
“Look, I’m a school principal myself, I feel schools are stuck between a rock and a hard place,” he said.
“They’re having to cater to the demands of their patron body – which is usually a Church body – and then the needs of their school communities, which aren’t, let’s say, religious most of the time.”
Mr Lewis said that parents should take responsibility for their children’s religious education instead of the school system.
“I absolutely understand why parents would love to outsource their religious beliefs to somebody else – but, I mean, education is a public service,” he said.
“Half of teachers right now don’t believe in a god, and yet they’re expected, as unbelievers, to teach children to believe in a religion.
“It just seems a bit messy.”
'We live in a multicultural society'
According to Mr Lewis, we need to move away from the idea that schools are an extension of the Church.
“I can understand the historical sense of the fact that, you know, schools are just an extension of the Church – generally the Catholic Church or whatever Church it was – but those days are over,” he said.
“We live in a multicultural society now and we have to adapt, our schools have to reflect the society that we live in.”
Compromise
Mr Lewis said there will always be tension between majority and minority groups, but that doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be compromise.
“I come from a minority background myself, you’re always asked to compromise for the majority,” he said.
“Sometimes it would be kind of nice for the majority to look at you and kind of go, ‘Okay, how are we harming these people? Are we harming them? Where is the harming cause and how can we try and include people who are in the minority?"
Mr Lewis said that we should strive for everybody to be included in society.