Catholic primary schools will continue to require a religious education certificate of teachers despite pressure from some secular activists to remove it, said the head of the Catholic Education Partnership (CEP).

This comes after members of the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) who attended the recent AGM of the organisation asked their union to lobby the Church for its removal.

CEO of the CEP Alan Hynes told The Irish Catholic that in Catholic schools teachers “need to have the necessary qualifications certificates to teach religious studies and that simply is just a necessary qualification to teach in our schools.”

The INTO delegates also voted to conduct a survey among members within the next year on various issues relating to religious patronage including the role of schools in faith formation and their experiences with religious and secular patronage systems.

Mr Hynes questioned why the INTO would be conducting a survey along this vein when the Department of Education is shortly about to engage in a nationwide survey asking opinions of parents and school staff – which include INTO members.