Sir, – Educate Together CEO, Paul Rowe doth protest too much! (Letters, June 29th)
He challenges educationalist Pasi Sahlberg’s contention that parental choice in the establishment of new schools is a “lazy choice”, not out of any conviction that the esteemed Finnish educationalist is wrong but out of a fear that Sahlberg’s theory might gain traction before Educate Together build their own education empire like many lobby groups before have done.
He astutely avoids the bigger picture and once again rails against the Catholic Church citing its control over 98 per cent of Irish schools. He fails to give credit to the vast majority of schools in the State which provide quality education to the majority of children or to acknowledge that parents of all faiths and none, in many instances, choose “Catholic” schools over other types of schools.
Catholic schools in the State are more diverse and inclusive in practice than Educate Together has ever been prepared to acknowledge.
They are Catholic, much more in the generic sense of the word rather than in the Roman denominational sense as often characterised.
Like the rabbit, Educate Together is caught in the headlights of the reality that schools other than Educate Together might also meet the parental choice and the educational needs of children. And all of this before it has “control” over the many of the schools in Ireland. Tiresome, Mr Rowe! – Yours, etc, SEÁN Ó DIOMASAIGH Principal, Sacred Heart of Jesus NS, Huntstown, Dublin 15.