Dear God, why does change take so long?
Indeed, how much evidence does the Irish State need staring it in the face before it will act? Take one piece of evidence: 30% of young couples are choosing a non-church marriage according to the last census. So, to reflect the non-religious choice these couples have made: are 30% of our primary schools non or multi-denominational? No. Only 2 to 3% are.
And it's not like the Department of Education doesn't know. The Parental Preference Survey on Schools Patronage done in 2012 and 2013 showed that in 28 of the 43 areas surveyed, people wanted change. In most cases, what they wanted was a multi-denominational Educate Together school. Educate Together provide most of the multi-denominational schools here, though there's a handful of multi-denominational community schools.
The department made it clear that if choice was to be provided in these areas, it was to be done at no cost to the department. So, a process of divestment was envisaged, where an existing church school, surplus to requirements, would be handed over to Educate Together.
Educate Together started schools in eight of these areas, in temporary quarters, waiting for the department to negotiate their move into a permanent home in a vacated school building. So far, though, that's happened in only two cases. A Church of Ireland school in Tuam and a Roman Catholic school in Limekiln Road in Dublin.
Educate Together are renting an old Christian Brothers school in Canal Way in the south inner city, but they've no guarantee that the lease will be renewed in five year's time. In Westport, they were offered a school which had lain empty for 20 years and was eight and a half kilometers out of town. They could be forgiven for feeling that nobody loved them. Nobody, that is, except the parents who want this sort of multi-denominational schooling.
The eight new schools opened were doing well. Take the school in New Ross. It started with 15 pupils in 2015, took 21 more in 2016, took 26 more in 2017. Looking good, you'd say. Then what happens? As RTÉ's Education Correspondent, Emma O'Kelly, reported New Ross school, along with four other Educate Together schools in Tramore, in Trim, Tuam and Castlebar, were told to cut their intake to only 13 a year.
"Does the plea that you can’t afford it relieve you of a Constitutional obligation?"
Why? Were they attracting kids that would otherwise have gone to the longer established schools, thereby threatening their teacher numbers and funding? "Well, we thought we were this huge success story", says Aoife Mahon, Principal of the Educate Together school in New Ross. "No other sort of school has this type of limit imposed on them", she said. "Because of the amalgamation of the Catholic schools in New Ross into a brand-new school building", she says, "there are three empty school buildings available. But none, so far, has been offered to Educate Together."
What's going on here? Jayme Lyng, a Canadian married to an Irishman, had specifically chosen to live in New Ross because there was an Educate Together school there. She saw that as reflecting her Canadian values of equality and respect for diversity and for people of other religions and other cultures. She's now afraid that her child won’t make it into the school because of the reduced intake.
At the heart of this whole debate is something simple. The Irish Constitution, in Article 42.3, says "The State shall not oblige parents, in violation of their conscience and lawful preference, to send their children to schools established by the State or to any particular type of school designated by the State."
That seems fairly clear. But look at what Minister for Education Richard Bruton said only last week in the Dáil: "We are not in a financial position to build additional schools just because people do not want the schools that are already in place."
Does the plea that you can’t afford it relieve you of a Constitutional obligation? And anyway, why not use existing vacant school buildings? And if the Roman Catholic Church, who in law own most of the available empty schools, won't part with them, shouldn’t it be reminded that these schools were, in many cases, paid for by the Irish taxpayer? And could not some of these buildings be handed over as part of the moral, if not legal, obligation on the church as a result of institutional abuse?
The Government was given clear evidence that parents wanted more choice of schools five years ago. By now, there are many more young parents. And that demand has, in all likelihood, grown. So, why, oh why, are we still waiting?
You can listen to Olivia's column as heard on Drivetime here:
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