IRELAND’S commitment to pluralism, tolerance and its religious minorities would be tested by the manner in which proposed education cuts were implemented, Church of Ireland bishops have said.
The proposed cuts could have a dramatically negative impact on small Church of Ireland schools, they said in a statement yesterday. This was so particularly in rural areas where schools could not be amalgamated.
“No single issue has in recent years caused such a degree of anxiety amongst our communities as this one,” the bishops said. “It is no exaggeration to say that this is a test case of the nation’s commitment to its citizens who are members of a religious minority and who for generations have sought to support and enrich the life of the State in an atmosphere of pluralism and tolerance.”
The nine Church of Ireland bishops said that “of the 174 schools of which we are patrons , 130 have 86 or less pupils and will be directly and in the short term affected by cuts in mainstream class teachers. This is a dramatic statistic.
“Many of these are in rural areas serving rural families and cannot readily be amalgamated with other Church of Ireland schools for reasons of geography.”
There is “a prospect of 38 of the schools becoming one-teacher. Such an arrangement is tantamount to a decision to close them.
“We contend that the cuts have, even if this is unintended, a disproportionate impact on the schools of which we are patrons. Given that this is so, and given the repeated commitment of successive governments to pluralism in the area of education, we would argue that such a commitment means that the approach to educational rationalisation across the State does not necessarily have to be uniform.”
While some Church of Ireland people “have felt it their clear duty to join in local movements aimed at the preservation of small rural schools, we also recognise that when we associate ourselves with a general campaign of this sort we may be in danger of failing to communicate clearly our particular concern,” the bishops added.
“Especially in rural areas, we lack the option of considering sensible amalgamations simply because of the dispersed nature of our people.”
