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Tuesday, 22 May 2012
Labour TD PDF Print E-mail
Religious ethos has no place in Irish schools

  • Rising Labour TD, Aodhan O'Riordain has said "religious ethos has no place in the educational system of a modern republic''
  • A proposed amendment to the Education Act will force teachers on denominational schools even when the school believes this could harm their ethos
  • Cardinal Sean Brady has defended the enrolment policies of denominational schools

IN THE last two weeks there have been a number of developments in the debate on education that are worth drawing to your attention. The most provocative is the comment by Labour TD, Aodhan O'Riordain who told The Irish Catholic last week that "religious ethos has no place in the educational system of a modern republic".

He said this as his branch of the Labour party, in Dublin North Central, sent a document to a Catholic school in Clontarf which told it, quite erroneously, that its admissions policy, which enrols Catholic children ahead of other children is in breach of the law.

O'Riordain was principal of a Catholic primary school in Dublin before his election. He often comments on education issues in the media and he has attended education conferences with Education Minister Ruairi Quinn. To read more about this story, click here.

While O'Riordain's remarks place him firmly in the Ivana Bacik camp of the Labour party, of more importance is the proposed amendment to the Education Act. Currently when a teacher is no longer needed at a given school that teacher is redeployed by the Department of Education to another school.

Currently the receiving school has the right to say no. The new amendment will remove that right. This is something the Church of Ireland as a minority religion is particularly concerned about.

Finally, on the subject of school enrolment policy, Cardinal Brady defended the present policy which allows denominational schools to admit children of their own religion ahead of other children. He made the comments at the beginning of Catholic Schools Week.    (Iona)