Sir, – The concerted attack on religious education, of which Ruairí Quinn's comments are the latest example (Home News, January 27th), is not surprising in view of the endless revelations of the inherent dishonesty, corruption and general lack of integrity throughout the elite of the country.
In the circumstances, the better response must surely be to increase religious education in schools with particular attention to the ten commandments. Perhaps mandatory Leaving Cert in religion for office-holders would be preferable to one in Irish? – Yours, etc,
BILL BAILEY,
Ballineen,
Co Cork.
A chara, – Teachers in schools under religious patronage (Church of Ireland, Muslim, Catholic, etc) now have a dilemma. Teachers are contractually bound by their patron, who is their employer, to teach religion. The Minister for Education and Skills is their paymaster, and he says they should stop teaching religion in schools. If the Minister is serious about his suggestion, then the State must take full responsibility for education in all schools and fund them adequately. In the meantime, teachers will continue to serve God and mammon! – Is mise,
SEÁN Ó DÍOMASAIGH,
Principal,
Scoil an Chroí Ró Naofa Íosa,
Huntstown,
Mulhuddart,
Dublin 15.
A chara, – Regardless of whose feathers he ruffled, Ruairí Quinn was sensible to suggest that basic literacy and numeracy would be improved in primary schools by devoting less time to religion and more to maths and reading.
Buried deep in an ESRI report of January 2012, The Primary Classroom, is a table which analyses the proportions of time spent on different subject areas in our primary schools. It is troubling to note that when more classroom time is spent on religious education, the two subjects which suffer the most are maths and English.
It seems that our primary school educators have traded the three Rs for four. – Is mise,
NICK HILLIARD,
De Courcy Square,
Glasnevin, Dublin 9.
Sir, – I share the Association of Catholic Priests' dismay at Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn's latest outburst (Home News, January 27th). At the start of Catholic Schools Week, Mr Quinn promotes anarchy by suggesting that primary school teachers go against principals and boards of management and curtail the amount of time given to religious education.
Amazingly Mr Quinn refuses to examine the reality of Roman Catholic education in Northern Ireland (or in Britain) where, in research studies, Roman Catholic schools are shown to provide better results than socially and economically comparable secular schools even though Roman Catholic schools there devote a similar amount of curriculum time to sacramental preparation as Roman Catholic schools in the Republic do.
Interestingly although Mr Quinn continues to imply a relationship between Irish national school learners’ under-performance in maths and English and amount of time spent on sacramental preparation, he provides no evidence to support his claim.
If time is really an issue, then the obvious answer is to extend the school day or extend the school year in line with schools in Northern Ireland. – Yours, etc,
ALAN WHELAN,
Beaufort, Co Kerry.