Ireland’s education system is almost entirely defined by religion.
Ninety-five per cent of our primary schools remain under religious control, despite the considerable social and constitutional developments of recent decades.
We are an outlier in the developed world, as rigid 19th-century power structures continue to shape the daily experiences of children and educators.
Catholics have declined as a percentage of the population in every census since the 1960s.
In the 2022 census, 69pc said they identified as Catholic. The figure for people aged between 25 and 29 was 53pc.
In Dublin city, it was also 53pc. If long-term trends continue, Ireland may be majority non-Catholic by 2040.
Preparation for the sacraments, including first communion, is viewed by many as incompatible with a human-rights-baed education system.
Ireland’s education system is almost entirely defined by religion.
Ninety-five per cent of our primary schools remain under religious control, despite the considerable social and constitutional developments of recent decades.
We are an outlier in the developed world, as rigid 19th-century power structures continue to shape the daily experiences of children and educators.
Catholics have declined as a percentage of the population in every census since the 1960s. In the 2022 census, 69pc said they identified as Catholic.
The figure for people aged between 25 and 29 was 53pc.
In Dublin city, it was also 53pc. If long-term trends continue, Ireland may be majority non-Catholic by 2040.
Irish marriages paint an even more significant picture. Only 31pc were celebrated in a Catholic ceremony in 2024.
That is the lowest figure since records began and continues a trajectory that began in the 1980s and 1990s.
By 2040, Catholic marriages may have fallen below 20pc.
Those numbers would not matter if our schools maintained clear blue water between education and religious indoctrination, but they do not.
How can schools purport to be inclusive when they remain firmly under the long shadow of church control?
Education Equality believes all children must be treated with equal respect, regardless of their family background, and be fully included in every aspect of the school day.
Mandatory religious indoctrination, faith formation, sacramental preparation, religious worship or any other form of confessional instruction woven into core teaching hours is incompatible with our vision of a human-rightsbased education system.
This includes the “integrated curriculum”, which teaches children that “puberty is a gift from God”.
It is deeply disappointing that successive governments and the Department of Education have failed to meaningfully engage with our campaign in recent years.
The National Conversation on Education and National Convention on Education should finally provide forums in which our aims can be officially addressed.
We also hope these initiatives will consider the difficult position of teachers, who are bound by Section 37.1 of the Employment Equality Act to uphold the religious ethos of their workplace, regardless of their own beliefs.
This legislation places teachers of no religion and of minority faiths at a significant disadvantage in their chosen careers, particularly if they do not possess a Catholic Certificate in Religious Education or an equivalent qualification.
The school divestment process has demonstrably failed. Only about one school a year has transferred from a religious to a multi-denominational patron since 2012.
There is no realistic prospect of a significant increase in the number of multi-denominational primary schools. Ireland has 156 such schools, representing just 5pc of our primaryschool stock.
The “school choice” narrative is a myth.
We must also address the matter of children’s rights. We are not talking here about notional, hoped-for rights, or new rights that have yet to be established, but children’s existing, clearly enshrined right under Article 44.2.4 of the Constitution to attend any publicly funded school without attending religious instruction. In practice, this right is often illusory.
What should be done?
Education Equality’s solution is simple: sacramental preparation, faith formation and religious worship should be moved outside the school day on an opt-in basis.
It is an entirely workable approach that could be quickly implemented through legislation without requiring any laborious changes in patronage, thereby avoiding all the attendant scaremongering, disinformation and moral panic from church representatives.
The State cannot continue to fund schools that operate in flagrant denial of children’s and teachers’ right to freedom of religion and belief.
Practices in Irish schools, where religious instruction and worship are a de-facto mandatory requirement of our education system, have long been overtaken by the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and by a wealth of European case law.
No case is more recent or more relevant than that JR87 brought against Northern Ireland’s department of education.
In determining whether religious education and collective worship provided in a school in the North breached the rights of a girl and her parents, the UK Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favour of the appellant.
The court noted: “To teach pupils to accept a set of beliefs without critical analysis amounts to evangelism, proselytising and indoctrination.”
This judgment has profound implications for Irish schools. There are close similarities between the education systems on both sides of the Border, and the two judicial systems are bound by the same human rights principles.
In the UK, the ECHR was incorporated into domestic legislation via the Human Rights Act 1998, while Ireland followed suit with the European Convention on Human Rights Act 2003.
Given similar facts, a human rights case taken against the Irish State would probably lead to a similar ruling.
Why force another family down the same road when we can simply abolish the integrated curriculum?
Ireland has changed – our schools must too.