Religion in primary schools a human rights issue, says Cork teacher  

A Cork teacher has said that religion in primary schools is a human rights issue, as a majority of union members believe faith formation should not take place outside schools.

A survey of Irish primary school teachers, by the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO), found that 57% believe faith should be formed outside of schools. Under 40% of teachers aged under 45 said that faith formation should happen in schools, compared to 60% of teachers over 55.

The INTO adopted recommendations on the future of religious education and primary school patronage at their annual congress this week, based on the report of a union taskforce.

Among the central proposals are accelerating the divestment of schools, collecting data on parental and community preferences, and challenging the requirement for a religious certificate as a condition of employment in schools.

Proposing the motion, teacher Jason Kelly said: “Even in Catholic-majority countries like Spain and Italy, the vast majority of public schools are secular. Religious certificates are only needed to teach religion, not every subject. Ireland is the outlier.”

Protect

Principal of the Cork Educate Together secondary school, Colm O’Connor, told The Echo that he thinks “the proposal to move religion outside of school hours is the most direct way to protect the religious rights of staff and students. Short of that, running separate classes for religion and ethics, at the same time, is the only way to ensure that schools are rights compliant.”

He said that the national debate is focusing on who manages schools rather than if children’s rights are respected within schools.

“We’ve signed treaties promising protection from indoctrination, but we aren’t protecting people from it. We force children to sit at the back of classes if they’ve opted out of religion. At the moment, half an hour every school day is spent sitting at the back of a class. That’s why it’s a human rights issue.”

Mr O’Connor added that it is also a human rights issue for teachers, saying the INTO survey shows “the growing secularisation of our population”.

Fewer

“We can see it in things like census figures, which show far fewer numbers of younger people identify as religious, and the survey shows a difference between older and younger respondents. But the structures require teachers to have a certificate in religious studies. You have young teachers often performing a fake religiosity in order to get the job. That puts people in an ethical dilemma.

“It’s self-defeating for patrons, also. They have a large amount of teachers teaching religion without any belief or knowledge in it.

“It’s becoming more and more visible as society changes, and until the Government recognises it, the gap will only continue to widen.”