With a new religious curriculum being published this week, based on the principle of equality of esteem, Paul Rowe asks why support for such aspirations still gets such paltry backing from the State.
This week sees the publication of the ethical education curriculum for Educate Together schools.
Called the "Learn Together" curriculum, this is the first ever religious curriculum produced for national schools that does not aim to teach the world outlook of a specific faith, but instead seeks to address the values of equality and diversity for children of all backgrounds.
It is the product of nearly 30 years work by teachers and parents in the Educate Together schools. This work has addressed the complex and delicate issues involved with schooling in an atmosphere of equality of esteem for all faiths while embracing the important issues of moral and spiritual development. The curriculum should be of great interest to all those in education who are grappling with the implications of our accelerating social diversity.
The Educate Together model is based on the simple concept that any child entering a school should be guaranteed equality of access and esteem irrespective of their social, cultural or religious background. In today's world the objective of a State-funded school should be that no child should feel an outsider because of their identity. The increasing popularity of Educate Together schools throughout the country underlines this opinion as year on year, the majority of new schools recognised by the Department of Education adopt this form of patronage.
Looking at this curriculum, with its strands of Moral and Spiritual Development, Equality and Justice, Belief Systems and Ethics and the Environment, it is difficult to accept that there is still so little official support for the development of schools of this type or for the publication of such a programme.
The entire burden of creating a network of legally inclusive schools in the South is carried on the shoulders of Educate Together - a small educational charity with very limited financial means.
In the North, strategic support for integrated schools has been on a statutory basis since the 1980s and that sector has flourished as a result.
In the South voluntary groups interested in inclusive education have faced many years of obstacles and difficulty.
Until 1999 they even had to provide the sites for new schools. Today, the commitment required is still a major impediment to the task of making such schools available to all parents.
The costs and effort involved are escalating. Last year, making an application alone cost an average €30,000 and the voluntary input needed over a three-year period has been calculated to exceed 9,000 hours. While many involved have found such commitment and contribution highly rewarding, the levels required can create unacceptable stress. Inevitably, this has meant that there are many areas in the country in which parents wish to educate their children in this way, but who honestly feel that the provision of such schools should be the responsibility of the State.
Meanwhile, Government support for the work of Educate Together remains minimal and now constitutes less than 7 per cent of the organisation's basic needs.
Surely, now is the time to examine the strategic goals of our primary education. Apart from the constitutional and human rights issues involved in effectively compelling parents to send their children to schools against their conscience, there is a strengthening view that educating children for equality between cultures and religions brings significant educational benefits.
The social benefits in the areas of immigration, social inclusion and respect for other's rights are inescapable. Young people are growing up in a diverse society that is now truly global in scope.
But in the educational field, when the programme moves from the need to deliver a specific doctrine to a freedom to explore many views, there is a shift in the whole paradigm of teaching. Rather than an instructor at the head of the class, the teacher becomes a guide to pupils who are encouraged to explore, evaluate and assess different viewpoints in an atmosphere of respect.
If at the same time, voluntary "opt-in" doctrinal or sacramental classes are provided outside the compulsory school day, the rights of all participants in the process are respected.
Teachers do not have to teach as religious truth beliefs they may not themselves hold. Parents are not placed in the position where they have to ask for their children to be removed from religious classes during school time. Pupils do not have to leave a classroom because of their family faith.
Those pupils who attend voluntary religious instruction classes as part of a tapestry of extra-mural opportunities do so with the commitment and support of their parents. The responsibility for religious formation moves from the school to the family and the religious organisations. It is no accident that there is an increasing body of opinion that such a model produces children with a deeper grasp of their own identity and a profound respect for the views of others.
If we are serious about promoting inclusion, innovation and creativity as central objectives in our education system and to prepare young people for our knowledge-based society, then programmes such as the Learn Together curriculum for Educate Together schools must play a central part and the State must realistically support this initiative.
Paul Rowe is chief executive of Educate Together