A new survey has found low levels of religious practice among trainee primary teachers. The survey, which was carried out by NUI Galway’s school of education, found that one-third of respondents said they rarely or never practised their religion or attended religious services. While most described themselves as “religious” (58 per cent), the remainder (42 per cent) self-described as either “not religious”, “did not know” or, in a small number of cases, atheist.

Despite this, the vast majority identified as Catholic (90 per cent), a rate higher than the general population at the time (78 per cent). A small minority of respondents (5 per cent) stated they had no religion, which was half the rate of the general population.

The survey examined attitudes towards religion among more than 1,000 teaching entrants and applicants with an anonymous questionnaire in 2014.

On the issue of teaching religion, most respondents said they were strongly in favour of teaching children about all faiths, world views and religions. The researchers found there was much less support for faith-formation-style religious instruction, even among Catholic respondents.