Laws around school admissions should be changed to prevent religious-backed schools from offering priority to children of faith, a Government advisory panel has said.
According to The Irish Times, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) has recommended that the law be altered so as to allow unbaptised children and those of minority faiths to apply for school places on the same basis as those drawn from the faith community served by a particular school.
The recommendation has come as part of the commission’s input to the new Admissions to Schools Bill (2015), due to be debated by the Oireachtas shortly.
Despite the current Constitutional protection offered to the right to denominational education, IHREC argues that a lack of diversity in schools for non-faith and minority faith children coupled with jurisprudence regarding the European Convention on Human Rights means the opportunity for change offered by the new Bill should be seized. On the issue of the Constitution, the IHREC proposes that new legislation offer the Minister for Education the power to offer exemptions for schools on a case-by-case basis and where such an exemption can be proved necessary for a school to maintain its ethos.
Responding to an earlier suggestion by the Minister for Education, Jan O’Sullivan, that 10% of a school’s places be reserved for families of past pupils, the IHREC rejected this as potentially discriminatory to migrants and other minorities and to families without historical ties to a school.
Meanwhile, The Irish Times also reported on moves by the country’s oldest Catholic school to deal with the admissions and diversity issues by donating a parcel of land to a non-denominational patron for two schools.
Under the arrangement formulated by St Kieran’s College Kilkenny, the land has been given to the Department of Education which is funding new buildings to accommodate 350 pupils. The move directly affects Kilkenny Vocational School, which has been located on the St Kieran’s campus since 1979, and Coláiste Pobal Osraí established in 1991. Both are run by the Kilkenny and Carlow Education and Training Board.
Commenting on the handover, Bishop Séamus Freeman of Ossory, patron of St Kieran’s said it would “further guarantee a greater educational choice for parents and students in the surrounding area”.
