Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn has questioned the amount of time devoted to religious instruction in primary schools and has called for a public debate on the issue.
He suggested Catholic authorities move to transfer more elements of sacramental preparation from the school to the local parish, saying Ireland and Israel spend considerably more time on religious instruction than any other OECD countries.
Commenting on a recent Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) survey, in which 70 per cent of schools said they were spending more than the allocated 2.5 hours a week on religious instruction, Mr Quinn asked: “Can we really afford to continue providing, for example, a mere 60 minutes per week of scientific instruction to our children? Or, for that matter, can we afford to maintain PE at the same level – just 60 minutes per week?”
Mr Quinn was speaking at the AGM of the Catholic Primary Schools Management Association (CPSMA) yesterday where he also stressed the need to accelerate progress on changes to school patronage.
The Minister said it was clear from recent parental surveys that parents in 29 areas support an immediate change in the existing school patronage, and he regretted that some boards of management had conducted “scaremongering campaigns” over the course of these surveys.
“These campaigns asserted to parents that expressing a desire for any other form of patronage would lead to a unilateral handover of Catholic schools to non-Catholic patrons.
“This was never the intention and I regret that a small minority of schools felt the need to embark upon such scaremongering,” he said.
Speaking after the event, the Minister said he would be “disappointed” if there were no new arrangements in place in the 29 areas identified in the survey by September 2014.
Responding to the Minister’s comments on the time devoted to teaching religion, CPSMA vice-chairman Fr Denis McNelis said his organisation would be happy to discuss the issue.
'Widespread disapproval'
"However, I think there would be widespread disapproval on the part of parents and most teachers . . . if we were to go down the road of removing entirely sacramental preparation from the school," said Fr McNelis.
He suggested that the department conduct a survey of parents on the issue.
The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment has begun work on the development of a programme on religion, beliefs and ethics for primary schools, the Minister announced yesterday.
“These programmes will supplement, rather than replace, existing faith formation programmes in schools,” he said.
Meanwhile, the CPSMA has announced plans for a set of guidelines for boards of management on inclusion of non-Catholic pupils in Catholic schools.
"At the moment there exists no set of guidelines to help existing primary schools to include students of other faiths and none," said CPSMA general secretary Eileen Flynn.
"So, working with our members and the Catholic Schools Partnership, we will be developing a set of recommended options to ensure that all of our schools have access to best practice."
The recent INTO survey Religion in Primary School found that four-fifths of schools have pupils attending who are not of the faith of the school, with most respondents reporting between 1 to 20 per cent of these pupils.
