The Minister for Education has accepted that plans to divest primary schools from the Catholic Church to other patrons are not progressing as quickly as hoped.
Today will see only the second change of patronage under the scheme when Newtownwhite National School outside Ballina, Co Mayo, transfers from the Church of Ireland to Educate Together in a ceremony due to be attended by Taoiseach Enda Kenny.
According to a report in today’s Irish Times, the process is being hindered by unexpected legal complications, including an absence of paperwork between the sState and religious authorities over title to land.
Speaking in Limerick this morning, Jan O’Sullivan stressed divestment can only be achieved through a process of consultation.
“Clearly, there are ownership rights and property rights and so on, that are involved but I would like to move it as quickly as possible,” she said.
“I think there are 28 parts of the country where there has already been some surveys carried out and where there is an expressed view that parents want other options. I want to see those [views] developed,” she added.
The Minister insisted divestment was not just a matter of paperwork.
“It’s around actually working out an agreement whereby a school that currently has ownership or patronage of a school is willing to engage in terms of changing, so it is a process of consultation and collaboration and I would certainly hope to drive it.”
Cyber bullying
The Minister for Education also said today that her Department is engaged in discussions with education partners to see how they can “actively address” the scourge of cyber bullying.
Her remarks follows calls from school principals for a dedicated classroom module on cyber bullying to be introduced to tackle growing concerns at junior and senior levels .
“It is something that concerns me greatly. Children are very vulnerable to cyber bullying they obviously have access to all technology now and are very engaged and it’s a very insidious form of bullying. It’s much easier to deal with physical bullying in a school situation but we certainly need to address it.”
