It also needs to “stop narrowing rights while speaking the language of inclusion”, the Catholic Education Partnership (CEP) has told the United Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in a lengthy submission to its Universal Periodic Review (UPR).
The document says “the State [must] stop demanding sacrifice from non-State patrons” such as faith schools while “leaving unexamined schools under its own patronage. It requires the State to stop relying on vague designations such as ‘multi-denominational’ without corresponding legal and operational clarity. And it requires the State to recognise that faith-based schools, far from being a problem to be managed away, can be an important expression of parental freedom, children’s cultural rights, and the common good.”
The UPR is an intergovernmental process within the Human Rights Council which ensures the review of all UN Member States’ human rights records.
In section 18 of the document, the CEP states: “The Catholic patrons of primary schools, through the Irish Episcopal Conference, have repeatedly expressed support for divestment and have supported several State initiatives aimed at increasing plurality of provision within the Irish education system.
However, the discriminatory provisions of the Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018 have become a practical obstacle to divestment. A community is less likely to consent to the transfer of a local school where it has no assurance that the remaining Catholic school or schools will be free to prioritise children from Catholic families.”
The law in question means that Catholic schools cannot enrol Catholic children first, in the event of over-enrolment, but Protestant schools can enrol Protestant children first.
The document gives an example of the Model School in Limerick in 2019/2020 where the State declined to consider that school for reconfiguration to a multi-denominational ethos.
The CEP writes: “If the Government were serious about patronage diversification as a matter of principle, it would have begun by examining schools already under direct ministerial patronage and asking whether, in areas lacking plurality, some of those schools might be reconfigured to widen choice. Instead, the practical and political burden of change has been directed outward, especially towards Catholic patrons. The State has demanded that others change while declining to begin with schools under its own control.”
The CEP, which is the umbrella body for Catholic Education in Ireland, made the submission with two other European Catholic education bodies.