Around 40% of parents of children attending Catholic or other religious denomination primary schools would prefer their child to attend a multi-denominational school, according to a national survey carried out by the Department of Education and Youth.
In what the department has called an exceptionally high level of engagement, more than 41% of all households with children of primary school-going or pre-school children responded to the questionnaire, which was circulated late last year.
All responses were validated in a process designed to ensure statistical reliability.
Parents were asked for their preferences regarding school ethos, and also whether they wanted education through English or Irish, or single-sex or mixed.
The preliminary findings published today relate only to responses received from the parents of children currently enrolled in primary school.
They show a significant appetite nationally for change when it comes to school ethos.
The vast majority of religious-run schools in Ireland are Catholic, with Catholic schools accounting for more than 90% of all primary schools across the country.
Approximately 60% of parents in denominational schools wish to retain that ethos.
In Wicklow almost half of parents of children in religious ethos schools indicated a preference for multi-denominational education.
Counties Waterford, Dublin, Cork and Kildare are among other counties showing the highest desire for change, with 44% and 45% of parents in religious run schools in those counties expressing a preference for multi-denominational education.
Counties Donegal, Longford and Monaghan show the lowest appetite for change, with around 30% of parents with children attending religious run schools indicating a preference for multi-denominational education.
Educate Together welcomed the results, saying that the fact that 40% of parents nationally would prefer a multi-denominational primary school contrasts starkly with current school provision, whereby 95.1% of primary schools remain under denominational control.
Educate Together CEO Dr Emer Nowlan said: "We have seen demand for Educate Together schools growing steadily in recent years, and these results confirm that current school provision is completely out of step.
"We look forward to the release of school-level survey data, so that these results can be acted on. We know that there are many schools around the country where there is a clear preference for Educate Together among a majority of parents and staff. We look forward to engaging with those schools to support them through the transfer process."
The Catholic Education Partnership (CEP) and the Catholic Primary Schools Management Association said the survey shows strong support for Catholic education as well as the need for greater parental engagement.
CEP Chief Executive Alan Hynes-Cendrzak said the findings "indicate a continued high level of confidence in Catholic schools".
He said it is hoped that the consultation process "marks a move by the department to commit to more thorough engagement with parents...including on the curriculum and other areas of particular concern to parents".
Appetite for change
Minister for Education Hildegarde Naughton said parents and guardians will have the choice to discuss the topic of multi-denominational schools locally.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, she said her department will share the information at a school level.
"Schools will be given the results of their individual surveys, which may look very different at a community, a local level.
"It is giving parents and guardians the choice. The department then will be able to facilitate them if they want to make changes in relation to the ethos, in relation to whether their school is co-ed," she said.
"For example, whether they want an Irish-medium school. This is all about choice."
Minister Naughton said patrons have expressed an appetite for change.
"This survey was really important to give that local choice to parents and guardians and local schools to say what it is they want in their local area," she added.
Co-education and English or Irish language
In the country's 276 single-sex primary schools 73% of parents favour a move to co-education.
13% of parents who have children attending English medium schools would prefer to have their children educated through Irish.
While these figures provide a national overview, the department has said it is important to note that it is the preferences within each individual school that will determine the future direction of that school.
It has said that detailed school-specific reports will be issued to each of the more than 3,200 participating schools in coming weeks.
"These reports will support patrons, boards of Management, staff and parents in considering next steps and their future direction", the department said.
Consultation on religious instruction
It said it would shortly begin consultations with "key stakeholders" to develop guidance on best practice arrangements for supporting schools where parents request that their children do not attend religious instruction.
The reports that go to individual schools will include the preferences of parents and guardians of pupils currently enrolled at the school, as well as the preferences of parents and guardians of incoming pupils.
This last information has not been published today, nor have the findings of a related survey of primary school staff and members of school boards of management.
493,000 households were eligible to participate in the survey.
Verification details such as Eircodes were required in order to validate parental responses.
Those Eircodes were tallied with school data held by the department to ensure that only eligible households responded. A total of 241,301 submissions were received.
Following a validation process 200,381 were approved, with the remaining 40,920 deemed not eligible.
According to the department most of the invalid submissions were duplicate entries associated with Eircodes that had already been used to submit a response.
A small portion came from Eircodes that could not be connected to households with young children.
Responding to the publication of the survey findings, the union said the length of time the Department of Education and Youth had taken to release aggregate responses from parents left much to be desired.
It called on the minister to release the aggregate findings from school staff and members of school boards of management as soon as possible.
"Without all relevant data, any tangible progress to provide more choice for school communities is unlikely to happen any time soon", the union said.
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At its annual congress last year, the INTO adopted a series of recommendations related to school patronage including that it would campaign for the accelerated divestment of schools from Catholic patronage and the repeal of legislation which allows schools to discriminate against teachers and other staff on religious grounds.
