Patronage is not a major issue for parents, and most are not even familiar with the term, according to the head of the Church’s umbrella body for Catholic schools.

Speaking yesterday at the launch of a major new report commissioned by the Catholic Schools Partnership (CSP), Fr Michael Drumm (pictured) said that the issue of patronage should not be overstated, according to an Irish Times report.

“We need to be careful about the whole patronage question and that it is not hyped up to such a level that at a national level it becomes the key issue on the agenda,” he said.

The report was the result of wide consultation with parents, patrons, teachers, priests, pastoral council members, pupils, assessors, trustees and managers involved in Catholic schools.

It found that parents chose primary schools for their children based on geographical proximity and prior knowledge of the school’s quality and that ethos and the teaching of religious education were identified as the defining elements of the Church’s involvement in primary education.

The report also found that participants in the study believed that the right of parents to send their children to Catholic schools must be recognised, and Catholic schools need to become more identifiably Catholic.

The report comes in the wake of Government suggestions that many primary schools need to be transferred to alternative patronage. In March, the Minister for Education, Ruairi Quinn, suggested that “at least half” of primary schools currently under the patronage of the Church ought to be transferred to alternative patrons.

Yesterday, however, Fr Drumm said it was foolish to try and put a number on the amount of schools where a transfer of patronage would be appropriate.

“Nobody knows the outcome of this process. You can come up with any percentage you want – nobody knows the outcome in any particular school, never mind the overall percentage. This is a complex process.”

Fr Drumm emphasised that any decisions needed to be made at a local level and in consultation with the schools and communities affected.

He advised against any national policy of patronage transfers which he warned could “antagonise the very communities that you might like to encourage to consider change”.

“The one thing you cannot underestimate in this whole process is – everything is so local, localism bedevils this in one sense – but localism is so important,” he said.

The report itself, Catholic Primary Schools in the Republic of Ireland: A Qualitative Study, found that there is still considerable demand for Catholic schools.

It found that many parents still value Catholic schools, and that such schools have unique, identifiable characteristics and which are considered valid and valued in modern Ireland.

The study also found that Catholic schools are considered inclusive, welcoming educational establishments that respect difference by those who participated in the study. One participant said: “I would say that inclusiveness is the big feature of the Catholic primary school. The other sectors that you mentioned there have a real class distinction attached to them. I come from a disadvantaged school … so we have a huge amount of multiculturalism and different religions.”

Another participant said that, to attend a Catholic school, “All you need to do is be part of the parish, it doesn’t matter if you are poor or black or white or a Traveller, you are included.”

However it also emerged that Catholic school communities need to re-affirm themselves, according to the report. Some participants, the report said, “believed they should not be apologetic about their Catholic patronage or ethos and should assert themselves more.” According to the study, “It was suggested that perhaps Catholic communities were somewhat nervous about putting their heads above the parapet because of recent difficulties in the Church.”

One participant said that “we have gone too far, we are bowing to too many other people where instead of just continuing with our own thing and yes everybody is more than welcome but when you come into our school these are the rules you go by.”

The preparation of children for sacraments is a vital part of the parents’ understanding of a Catholic school as they identify the Catholic nature of the school with first communion and confirmation, according to the study.

http://www.catholicschools.ie/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Report-on-Research-on-Catholic-Primary-Schools.pdf