Sir, – Maria O'Rourke (March 27th) objects to the so-called "media campaign" which portrays faith-based schools as "backward, insular, bigoted places where newcomers and children of other faiths are made to feel unwelcome or second rate". As a parent of an unbaptised child, I object strongly to her assertion that this is not the case. She informs us that we do not "feel unwelcome". She is wrong; we do! How on Earth could we not feel unwelcome when our children are pushed to the back of almost every queue for admission to our (supposedly) national schools? It is deeply upsetting and conflicting when your child suffers discrimination as a result of your wish to exercise your own freedom of conscience with regard to religious affiliation.
These are not privately funded schools. Education is not an optional extra; it is compulsory and is funded by the State for this reason. Yet our laws and Constitution still allow discrimination in the allocation of school places when they would not allow it in offering access to any other public service. This is shameful and it is vital that this is highlighted by the media as many people still seem to be oblivious to this anomaly and the suffering and hurt it causes.– Yours, etc,
NIAMH O’CONNOR,
Dublin 5.
Sir, – The number of Irish people with no religion – atheists and agnostics – increased by 400 per cent in Ireland between 1991 and 2011 to a total of 277,237. Over a third of weddings last year were non-religious. Is it right that these people should have to have their sons and daughters baptised – irrespective of their beliefs – just so that they may avail of their right to an education?
Despite the recommendations of the Report of the Advisory Group to the Forum on Patronage and Pluralism in the Primary Sector, and despite results of the 2012 Department of Education surveys that showed parental demand for change of patron in 28 of the 43 areas surveyed, apart from the two Catholic schools which merged in Dublin 8 to create a vacant building for Educate Together, to date just one school – a Church of Ireland primary school in Co Mayo – has been transferred to another patron.
Indoctrination is not education. It does not encourage independent and critical and thinking. Groupthink is a problem that has been identified again and again when analysing the failure of institutions in this country. Religions are mutually exclusive claims as to revealed truth. By definition, they cannot all be true, as they espouse contradictory beliefs. Why should one religion be allowed by the State to dominate the management of primary education?
As we approach the centenary of the 1916 Proclamation, with its guarantee of religious liberty, we must ask why, nearly 100 years later, this guarantee has not been fulfilled.
This is a republic only in name until this issue is addressed. – Yours, etc,
ROB SADLIER,
Dublin 16.