An international survey has shown that Irish primary school children on average spend more time learning religion and 
less time on maths and science than children in other developed countries.
The report, published by the OECD, says that despite the growth in science-based jobs in industry, very little time is given to the subject in Irish primary schools.
The research looks at education systems in more than 30 developed countries and says our education system is lagging behind most developed countries in providing students with good scientific skills at primary level.
According to the OECD ‘Education at a Glance’ report, Irish primary pupils spend only 4pc of their class time on science — half the international average of 8pc but spend 10pc of teaching time to religion, more than double the OECD average of 4pc.
Irish primary pupils spend an hour a week on science but two-and-a-half hours a week on religion.
However, the survey also showed that Irish literacy levels were falling, despite the fact that our primary pupils spend more time on reading and writing than pupils in other OECD countries.
Last year, Minister for Education, Ruairi Quinn, suggested that falling literacy and numeracy were due to the amount of time spent in Irish schools on religious education.
However, former Taoiseach John Bruton rejected Mr Quinn’s suggestion.
Mr Bruton acknowledged that these figures were worrying but accused Mr Quinn of singling out religion for blame.
However, he said: “As far as I know that 30 minutes per day has not increased over the period since the earlier tests in which Ireland obtained a creditable 5th place.
“So why single out religious formation? Why does the Minister not, for example, refer to the teaching of second language, Irish in most cases, on which I believe 120 minutes per day is spent?”
He suggested that a possible explanation for the decline could be that the school year was too short.
“Irish second level (but not primary) school children spend slightly fewer hours per year in school than do their equivalents in the OECD as a whole,” he said.
However, when Ireland got its former high mark in the international comparison, this was also the case, he pointed out.
“So why single out the 30 minutes per day spent on religious formation, when there are so many other ways to find time to improve our scores in reading and mathematics?” Mr Bruton asked.
He added that improving results for the sake of international comparisons should not be “the be all and end all of educational policy”.
Mr Bruton said: “Education seeks to prepare children not just for working life, but for life as a whole. Education that focussed narrowly on work available today would soon be obsolescent. The purpose of education is to develop the whole person, aesthetic, artistic, physical, moral, and spiritual.”