Press release from The Iona Institute
A new report on how to make denominational schools more inclusive of children of other faiths and none just released by the Department of Education has been described as a “step in the right direction” by Breda O’Brien, of The Iona Institute.
The report is from the Forum on Patronage and Pluralism in the Primary Sector.
The original set of recommendations from the Forum would have resulted in the ethos of denominational schools becomingng too watered down. For example, the recommendations said prayers must be ‘inclusive’, which raised the possibility that Christian prayers would not be deemed sufficiently ‘inclusive’ towards non-Christian pupils.
Similarly, a recommendation that all the symbols of all the religions of the pupils in a school be put on display raised the possibility that it would become much harder for a school to show through its religious symbols that it belongs to a particular religion.
In other words, ‘inclusion’ would come at the price of identity.
Commenting on the new report, Breda O’Brien said: “While it will require closer study, it seems that many of the concerns of those who believed the original recommendations went too far appear to have been taken on board. This report is far more moderate and appears to strike the right balance between making denominational schools more genuinely inclusive while also respecting the ethos and identity of those schools”.
She concluded: “It must always be borne in mind that a Department of Education survey of parents in more than 200 schools in 43 areas showed that there is actually very little concrete demand for a transfer of denominational schools to new patron bodies. This indicates that in reality the vast majority of parents already find their local denominational schools to be inclusive”.
ENDS
Notes to Editor
- The Iona Institute is an inter-denominational Christian organisation dedicated to arguing for the importance of marriage and the role of religion in public life.
- The new report on inclusion in primary schools can be found here.
