Govt must not ‘interfere’ with ethos of faith schools

Bishops have warned the Minister for Education not to “interfere with the ethos of faith schools” after she proposed plans to remove rules regarding religious education in national schools.

Minister for Education Jan O’Sullivan announced plans last week to remove Rule 68 and 69 from the Rules for National Schools next year. Rule 68 states that “of all parts of the school curriculum, religious instruction is by far the most important” and Rule 69 states that the religion of each child should be ascertained from the parent.

The Bishops’ Council for Education said it supports the need to update and revise the rules, but said that the two rules which deal with religious education should not be dealt with in isolation.

Ethos

A statement said it is “not the role of the minister to determine or interfere with the ethos of faith schools” and “in our view the autonomy of schools, with regard to religious education and admissions policies, should be enhanced rather than weakened”.

Fr Tom Deenihan, General Secretary of the Catholic Primary School Management Association (CPSMA) expressed concern “that there is an intention to remove denominational ethos from the education system” and asked the minister to give an undertaking that faith schools would be allowed “to teach religious education during the school day in accordance with the school’s ethos”.