Photo: OSV News photo/courtesy St. Agnes School Catholic patrons of primary schools are fully in favour of the reconfiguration of schools to better reflect the pluralist nature of society but this is being blocked by a discrimatory provision which forces (only) Catholic schools to take children whose families may not subscribe to the Catholic ethos, according to Alan Hynes, chief executive of the Catholic Education Partnership
“The provision of Section 11 of the Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018, the effect of which is that Catholic schools (alone among faith schools) may not prioritise admission for children from families committed to the ethos of the school. This discriminatory provision has now become a block on divestment of Catholic schools to non-Catholic patronage, with communities being unwilling to consent to reconfiguration of patronage if there is no guarantee that children from Catholic families may be prioritised in admission to the remaining Catholic-owned and run schools. This provision cuts straight across the constitutional and international human rights obligations of the Irish State.”
Mr Hynes says this is not the only challenge: “At present, the draft primary schools’ curriculum is threaded through with references to “values” without once identifying the source of those values. It is not clear what is intended here but the solution is clear – those values should be rooted in the particular ethos of the school, be that one of faith or otherwise.
Anything else is a breach of trust with parents, who apply to schools on the basis of admission policies, which, since the commencement of section nine of the Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018, has mandated schools to include a clear statement of their ethos. Parents have a fundamental right to choose a school that will “ensure the religious and moral education of their children in conformity with their own convictions” (ICESCR, Art 13.3). Any state seeking to smuggle in values not in keeping with the stated ethos of a school would be acting contrary to its human rights obligations.”
Mr Hynes went on to add: “Thankfully, the Act of 2018 requires the Minister for Education to carry out a review of the operation of Section 11 in 2025. It is hoped that a proper appraisal of the human rights framework will form a significant part of that review and that the Government will move to bring the State’s legislative approach to education back into line with its constitutional and human rights obligations.” Mr Hynes was writing in The Irish Times.