The Humanist Association of Ireland (HAI) is writing to pressure Minister for Education Mary Coughlan into reneging on a promise made to provide time during the school year for separate specific religious instruction for children of different faiths in five experimental, State-run primary schools, the Irish Independent reports.

The Department of Education has set up five Community National Schools, which use a multi-faith programme called “Goodness Me, Goodness You” that introduces pupils to all major religious and non-religious beliefs.

When the schools were established, former Minister for Education Mary Hanafin promised that the schools would provide separate religious formation during the school day according to the wishes of parents.

However, the HAI is claiming that dividing pupils into believers and non-believers at an early age emphasises divisions between young children instead of bringing them together and that it does not happen with other subjects.

It wants the Minister to move all specific faith formation and preparation for religious ceremonies such as Communion out of the school day and offer it, if parents wish it, after school. This would break the promise made by the previous Minister, Mary Hanafin.

That model was to be rolled out in future to cater for children of all faiths and those of no faith.

A religious education reference group is overseeing the development of the “Goodness Me, Goodness You” programme.

It includes representatives of the management bodies, the main religious groups and the Humanist Association.

The association’s representative until last week was Dick Spicer who was supportive of the programme, but who resigned when he failed to get the backing of fellow association members.

He has been replaced by association chair Brian Whiteside who has made known his objection to the programme. The association instead wants Ms Coughlan to adopt the approach used in multi-denominational Educate Together schools.

These schools run a common ethical programme called Learn Together, with faith formation taught by individual churches outside school hours.

Educate Together chief executive Paul Rowe said the only way to treat all beliefs equally in a multi-denominational school was to have an ‘opt in’ facility for faith formation after school hours.

The association’s view would cause concern to promoters of the pilot programme that enjoys the support of the main religious groupings including the Irish Vocational Education Association, whose general secretary Michael Moriarty said the programme could work and that it should be given a chance to meet parents’ wishes in the local community.