Sir, – Over the past 10 years the Department of Education has, on the basis of demographic data and parental interest, sanctioned the opening of five new multidenominational national schools in Galway. Yet the department’s announcement of its capital investment programme for the next six years makes no provision for a new secondary school for Galway. Currently all secondary schools in Galway have a Catholic ethos. Given the severe pressure on places, non-Catholic children are struggling to secure any second-level place, let alone one that aligns with their family’s values. If school places totalling 120 pupils a year were needed at primary level, does it not follow that the same is needed at secondary? Where is it exactly that the Minister thinks our children will go to school? – Yours, etc,
Dr RACHEL HILLIARD,
Claddagh,
Galway.
Sir, – Patrick Davey (November 16th) asks how parents who want their child to go to a religious school are to be accommodated alongside those who want the opposite. What would "the opposite" look like?
It would be a system where over 90 per cent of state-funded schools would be allowed to discriminate against children of religious parents by placing them at the bottom of enrolment lists. These children would have the choice of sitting out part of the school day, or be taught that their families’ beliefs are wrong. Teachers with religious faith would feel obliged to keep quiet about it.
I am not aware of anybody campaigning for “the opposite”, which would be as unjust as the current system. What many of us are campaigning for is a level playing field where our children are treated equally – no better and no worse than their baptised friends. – Yours, etc,
EIMEAR LYNCH,
Deansgrange, Co Dublin.