If
we look at the words and actions of Ruairí Quinn in his time as
Minister for Education, a clear pattern begins to emerge. 

One
big idea unites his suggestion that schools use the time allocated
for religious education to teach Maths and the Forum on Patronage’s
proposal that Catholic ‘Stand Alone Schools’ move away from
integrating religion into their curriculum and devote most of their
RE class time to education
about World Religions and Ethics. His
big idea? Faith
schools should be more neutral.

On
the face of it this seems like a laudable aim. What’s wrong with
having a public education system that doesn’t favour one faith over
another? The problem is that Minister Quinn and his supporters
totally misunderstand the nature of education in Ireland. If the
Minister is seeking a more ‘neutral’ system, he might consider
the German example.

German
Basic Law states that “The entire school system shall be under the
supervision of the state”, and that religious instruction in faith
schools must take place “Without prejudice to the state’s right
of supervision”. Essentially, the state is the primary educator,
and its goal is to form citizens in the way it sees fit.

Ireland’s
model is, at its root, completely different. Article 42 of Bunreacht
Na H’Eireann states:

1.    
The State
acknowledges that the primary and natural educator of the child is
the Family and guarantees to respect the inalienable right and duty
of parents to provide, according to their means, for the religious
and moral, intellectual, physical and social education of their
children.

2.    
Parents
shall be free to provide this education in their homes or in private
schools or in schools recognised or established by the State.

In
other words, parents are the primary educators, and schools serve as
proxies for those who do not wish to homeschool (homeschooling is
illegal in German – a Nazi-era ban still stands).

So
schools have to follow as closely as possible the wishes of the
parents – all the state has to do is ensure that a “certain
minimum education” is provided. Neutrality is not any kind of aim.
If Minister Quinn wants to change that, he’ll need to amend the
constitution.

But
he’d be wrong to do so. Ireland’s approach to this question is the
right one, because it recognises that when it comes to education,
there is no such thing as true neutrality. To parents who wish to
give their children a denominational education, religion is not an
optional add-on but a set of fundamental truths about the nature of
reality – every bit as important as English or Maths.

For
a Catholic school, to become neutral is to be neutralised. 

Does
this mean that Catholic schools can’t be inclusive? Not a bit of it.
As Sr Elizabeth Maxwell writes in today’s Irish Times: “A
significant amount of public discourse around faith-based education
in recent times suggests that denominational schools are a block to
the development of a genuinely pluralist society. The opposite
applies.” Breda O’Brien, a second-level teacher and a patron of the
Iona Institute, has written for the same paper that “people
familiar with Irish education know that on all sorts of criteria,
from integration of minorities from abroad to catering for very
disadvantaged groups like Travellers, denominational education scores
very highly on inclusivity”.

The
Irish education system facilitates inclusion while respecting
parents’ wishes and preserving the educational diversity that faith
schools bring. Sacrificing that for the elusive goal of neutrality
would be foolish indeed.