The Department of Education asked all interested parties to make submissions to a new ‘National Conversation on Education’ launched recently. The ‘conservation’ is described by the Department of Education as a “once in a generation opportunity for children, young people, parents, educators and wider society to help shape Ireland’s education system for decades to come.”

A Convention on the future of our schools will take place over four weekends beginning this month. The chair of the Convention will be Professor Anne Looney.

The Iona Institute submission argues that the wishes of parents should be paramount in any conversation about the future of our schools and that the ethos and autonomy of denominational schools must be respected. In the name of ‘pluralism’, we should not move towards a ‘one-size-fits-all’ education system that would anything but pluralistic. Nor should we be fooled by misinterpretations of human rights documents into thinking publicly-funded denominational education should no longer exist.

Submissions were set at a maximum of 1,000. The deadline was February 27th. Our submission can be found below.

Submission from the Iona Institute to the National Conversation on Education

The Iona Institute hopes that the value of denominational education will be upheld in the National Conversation on Education. Denominational schools are enduringly popular even if a strong argument can be made that they are too predominant in the primary school system at present.

However, while it is one thing to argue that there should be fewer denominational schools, it is quite another to argue that there should be none. We should not move towards a one-size-fits-all education system, and we should not pretend that any schools can teach values in a way that is truly neutral.

In accordance with the Irish Constitution, the wishes of parents should be paramount in this conversation and parents who want their children to be educated in a denominational setting, must continue to be supported by the State, including through public funding.

Religious freedom and parental rights are not respected when the State refuses to support denominational schools. In this regard, the American education system is quite rare in that public funding does not go to denominational schools.

In Britain, for example, denominational schools receive public funds and those schools remain very popular with the public. Even in France, Church-run schools receive public funding.

Below are certain points and principles that the National Conversation on Education should bear in mind in our opinion.

1. Decisions as to whether religion should or should not have a role in the education of children properly belong with parents, rather than the State or any other third party. The job of the State is, within reason and according to resources, to facilitate the wishes of parents with regard to the formal education of their children.
2. We argue that the principle of parental choice is fully enshrined both in the Irish Constitution and in international human rights law. Certain interpretations of both domestic and international law seek to limit the meaning of religious freedom or to conflate pluralism with secularism. These are not the same thing. A secular system can lack pluralism. A diverse schooling system is pluralistic.
3. We believe that there should be greater diversity of provision in schooling than is currently available.
4. While it is the duty of the State to provide this greater diversity, we believe that the Churches should do what is reasonable to accommodate and make possible such diversity, as they are attempting to do.
5. A more diverse system should give denominational schools greater freedom to be true to their ethos and the State should allow for this.
6. We believe that the choice is not between denominational schools on the one hand, and schools that provide education in an “objective, critical and pluralistic manner” on the other. We believe that denominational-based education, while having a point of view, can be both objective and critical, and at the same time can show respect for other points of view. Crucially, we do not believe it is possible for any education system or school not to have a point of view, that is, we do not believe it is possible for an education system to be ‘value-neutral’.
7. This means we are not faced with a choice between denominational schools and ‘value-neutral’ schools, but rather between schools with one or another value-system or ethos.
8. This being so, it is a fundamental mistake to think the best way to accommodate ‘diversity’ is within an exclusively State-run multi or non-denominational State-run school system. Such schools will unavoidably have an ethos. Instead, the best way to cater for diversity is to make available a range of school type, insofar as resources allow.
9. This will minimise, though not eliminate, the number of parents unhappy with the present lack of diversity. It would do so far better than moving towards a non or multi-denominational State-run system.
10. Accordingly, it is perfectly appropriate that the ethos of denominational schools should infuse all the activities of the school, again in accordance with the wishes of parents who want a denominational education for their children.

The Iona Institute supports the taking of appropriate measures, as a matter of some urgency, to remedy the practical failures to effectively bring into being the principle of parental choice enshrined in the Irish Constitution. But these practical failures should not become the pretext for the adoption by fiat of a secularist understanding or model of public education. Nor should some of the commentary on how international law ought to impact our education system be taken at face value. As we point out in various documents on our website, international law respects parental choice and (though it does not require it) the existence of denominational schools supported by the State.

Crucially, no country has ever had to withdraw public funding from denominational schools as a result of a ruling by an international body.