Ireland has changed - our schools must too

OPINION

by David Graham, Education Equality

“I would challenge anyone to tell me that Catholic schools are not as inclusive as any other type of school”, wrote Bishop Tom Deenihan on this website recently (“Respect for others is a key task for schools and society”, Sunday 23 January).

As Communications Officer of Education Equality, a parent-led human rights organisation campaigning since 2015 to disentangle the influence of religious bodies from the Irish education system, it is a challenge I am delighted to accept.

I could begin by talking about Finn, a six-year-old boy in a Catholic school in Athlone who was recently told by two classmates, within earshot of his teacher, that he “had to believe in God”. He is from a non-religious family. An inclusive school would teach that there are people with different beliefs, but Finn’s school regards respect as a one-way street. “My kid has to sit in class and listen to them teaching religion every week with no option to be somewhere else for it”, Finn’s mother writes. Westmeath has 74 primary schools but only one of these is non-religious, Mullingar Educate Together NS.

I could mention Ruairi, who is seven, who attends a Catholic school in a small village in south Westmeath. Ruairi’s family does not practice any religion and he is the only child in his class who is opted out. His mum writes: “I have had to explain to him what an atheist is, what a Buddhist is, what a Muslim is, and so on. Even though he has never been to mass, he knows the Hail Mary and tells me that God is really my father, because his teacher told him so and she doesn’t lie! How is that inclusive? Unless the bishop means they included him in the religion classes despite him being opted out.”

I could point to the father from a minority religious background who wrote to me that: “It is impossible for Catholic schools to fully include my son in every lesson throughout the day”, or the teacher who wrote that: “Catholic schools cannot give me a job without me lying in an interview.”

The difficulty in meeting Bishop Deenihan’s challenge is not in explaining why Catholic schools are not inclusive, but rather in knowing where to begin.

It is important to note that, notwithstanding the delusions of victimhood that seem to preoccupy many religious conservatives in this debate, campaigners actually have no particular problem with Catholic-run schools any more than with schools managed by other denominations. Broadly speaking, similar issues tend to arise in all religious-run schools. However, it is an inescapable fact that 89% of Irish primary schools are under Catholic patronage, while well over 90% of Irish primary school children attend Catholic-run schools.

The difficulty is not with Catholicism per se, but rather with the permeation of religious dogma throughout the school day in breach of the conscience and lawful preference of families and staff members who do not share these beliefs.

Did you know that Irish children have a constitutional right to be educated in their local school without attending faith formation lessons? Article 44.2.4 provides for “the right of any child to attend a school receiving public money without attending religious instruction at that school”. This provision explicitly grants freedom of religion and belief to all families in our schools and allows parents – at least in principle – to remove their child from these lessons, a process commonly known as “opting out”.

In practice, this right is illusory. One school in Westmeath states in its admissions policy that if parents want to remove their child from religious instruction: “A written request should be made to the Principal of the school. A meeting will then be arranged with the parent(s) … to discuss how the request may be accommodated by the school.” Invariably, parents who try to assert their rights discover that their child will remain in the classroom anyway and will continue to attend this unwanted instruction by sheer force of physical proximity.

This is not inclusion.

Numerous domestic and international human rights bodies, including the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, have examined our education system and recommended that Ireland finally meet its human rights obligations towards non-religious families and religious minorities.

Bishop Deenihan’s article is notable less for what it says than for what it does not. There is no mention of human and constitutional rights. Not even a passing reference to the 10% of Irish citizens who indicated that they had no religion in the last Census in 2016 – a figure that will certainly rise in the next Census on 3 April. No indication as to how schools under Catholic patronage include the children of same-sex parents or unmarried couples when teaching relationships and sex education. “The Church’s teaching in relation to marriage between a man and a woman cannot be omitted”, says the Flourish programme.

There is also no reference to inclusion for LGBTQ+ teachers in Catholic schools, many of whom feel obliged to hide their sexuality. No recognition of the segregation that happens during religion classes and lengthy sacramental preparation periods, when some children are treated as outsiders within their own communities and moved to the back of classrooms and churches. No acknowledgement of the non-Catholic kids who are left out of class photographs. No mention of the harsh doctrine that, at its heart, considers women to be second-class citizens and teaches that non-believers will be cast into hell.

This is not inclusion.

Also absent is any reference to the fact that Catholic-run schools continue to reserve the right to refuse admission to non-Catholic children “where it is proved that the refusal is essential to maintain the ethos of the school”. This is now an empty threat, thanks to new admissions legislation recently introduced following tireless campaign work by Education Equality. It has been retained in school admissions policies not because it is enforceable, but to remind non-Catholic families that they should know their place.

This is not inclusion.

As one might expect from a man of the cloth, Bishop Deenihan repeatedly invokes God, Jesus, and Christ while extolling “the contribution that Christianity has made and should make to society”. But growing numbers of people do not hold Christian beliefs. If you don’t believe that your child is made in the image and likeness of God, how can a Catholic school be inclusive? Are we to believe that inclusion means treating all children as Catholic, even if they are not? Inclusion cannot be bestowed – it’s about belonging, by right. It’s about being respected and celebrated for who you are. And it’s about recognising that no religion can ever claim sole ownership of human values such as love, kindness, meaning or community.

Our schools have long been overtaken by social change. Catholicism has declined in every Census since 1961. The last ten years have witnessed transformative, people-powered reform on issues such as divorce, same-sex marriage and abortion. 2020 saw non-religious marriages eclipse Catholic marriages in popularity, cementing a trend that began in the 1980s.

As debate around the ongoing role of religion in our schools gathers momentum, both the churches and the Government have failed to appreciate the strength of feeling among parents on this issue. It is difficult to understand why the penny has been so slow to drop. There has been endless commentary on this topic from human rights organisations, advocacy groups, educationalists, journalists and individual campaigners in recent years.

Church and State may live in denial, but there is a growing consensus that religious control of our schools urgently needs to be addressed. Parents are weary, frustrated and angry at having to send their children to schools that pay scant regard to their human and constitutional rights. Many teachers do not accept being contractually obliged to impart beliefs they do not hold.

Human rights advocacy organisation Education Equality was established in 2015 by a group of parents and concerned citizens, many of whom had personally experienced religious discrimination at the hands of local schools. We believe that all families should enjoy equal access to school, and equal respect at school, regardless of their religion or lack of religion. We have already succeeded in achieving our first goal with the passing of the Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018. The vast majority of primary schools are now legally prohibited from pushing unbaptised children to the back of the enrolment queue.

Our focus is now firmly on our second goal of equal respect. We believe that religious instruction and worship should be removed from the curriculum and instead offered to families outside core school hours on an opt-in basis. This could be done quickly at little cost, vindicating the human and constitutional rights of non-religious and minority religion families while also facilitating parents who want their children to receive faith formation lessons and prepare for the sacraments.

Education Equality’s campaign enjoys growing support and our petition HERE has attracted over 6,750 signatures to date.

Ireland’s education system is an outlier in the developed world. By depending on a 19th century religious patronage model, it has failed to meet the needs and expectations of a 21st century society.

Ireland has changed – our schools must too.

David Graham is a parent and Communications Officer with Education Equality, a human rights advocacy group campaigning for equal respect for all children at school, regardless of religion. The group believes that religious instruction and worship should be removed from the curriculum and offered to parents and teachers on an optional basis outside core school hours. You can follow them on Facebook and Twitter or contact them at info@educationequality.ie.