Madam, - Why do we call our primary schools "national"? There is nothing national about them, since the nation has historically abdicated from its responsibility to make primary education available to all and left it to the religious bodies to fill the gap.
The churches have done so admirably to date, but the experience in Balbriggan this week shows how anachronistic this model has become.
Isn't it time the State took responsibility by seeking to take over the patronage of many of the national schools? Or will it fall to the progressive Educate Together body to step into the breach?
Perhaps the Minister is happy enough to create "non-national" schools? - Yours, etc,
ART V. McGANN,
Hollybrook Road,
Clontarf,
Dublin 3.
Madam, - My five-year-old son began his school life last week in a Dublin gaelscoil. Like a lot of new parents, I found the process of choosing a school an insightful and revealing experience. For me it was also slightly disturbing
I am a country boy who grew up in a small West Cork town with one primary school for the boys and one for the girls. It didn't matter if you were from the wealthiest or the poorest family in town; we were all there together.
Dublin in 2007 is a very different world.
One issue in particular has left a very bad taste in my mouth and that is insistence by some schools that you send in a copy of your child's baptism certificate to prove he or she is a Catholic. This excludes a lot of children from local primary schools and sends out all the wrong signals to people like me and to the new families who have chosen to come and live in this country. Even though my son was christened, we decided to refuse to take up a place in schools that demand to see a baptism certificate.
Surely our schools should be open to all the children of Ireland. - Yours, etc,
DANIEL McCARTHY,
Iveagh Gardens,
Dublin 12.
Madam, - If the Archdiocese of Dublin is determined to "stick to [ its] enrolment policy of providing an education for Catholic children and siblings first", would it be fair to ask that the taxpayers of this country stop funding these schools?
Refusing young children admission to a school on the grounds of religion is discrimination. That a school can openly have a policy of "no Jews, no Muslims, no Hindus, no Protestants, no Sikhs, no atheists" is bad enough. That we are expected to fund these institutions is completely unacceptable. - Yours, etc,
TOM FARRELL,
Glenbeigh Park,
Dublin 7.