Catholics bishops have called on the Minister for Education to withdraw a directive which mandates that students who opt out of religion classes in State-run secondary schools must be timetabled for other subjects.

In correspondence with Richard Bruton, they have warned that students who study religion will suffer an unfair disadvantage in comparison with their peers who don’t, who will instead receive extra tuition in examinable subjects, such as maths, Irish or English: “While we are respectful of the wishes of those who opt out of religious education … we are equally clear that those who continue to take religious education should not be disadvantaged …”

The bishops have proposed that students who opt out of religious instruction should instead be offered a course in “religious heritage and values as well as ethics”.

The bishops also say the Minister’s circular overlooked the fact that religious education being taught in ETB schools is “not religious indoctrination” but a syllabus devised by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA), an agency of the Department of Education.