Meaningful reform in the primary sector has been slow, but that is not surprising given the complexity of factors at play. The Government’s target of providing at least 400 multi-denominational schools by 2030 has been undermined by a mixture of overlapping Church and State control over primary schools, an unclear demand, conflicting constitutional rights and competing interests among various vested actors. Recent reporting in this newspaper highlighted that the timeline has already slipped in the Department of Education and the Catholic Church’s latest attempt to give parents greater choice in eight pilot areas.
Although there is significant support for increasing diversity of patronage within the Irish primary sector, several factors militate against change. First, how much demand for change is needed in a local area for politicians and State officials to be willing to overcome organised and vocal local opposition is unclear. Support for greater diversity of patronage is often over 30 per cent, but these views are often not concentrated within a particular area. Thus, the demand to warrant divestment or open a new school may be inadequate. Second, parents’ religiosity does not perfectly correlate with demand to have their children in a Catholic or non-Catholic school. Not all parents who are less religious prefer a non-Catholic primary school, and not all religiously active Catholics choose Catholic schools for religious reasons. Third, the overall strength of all Irish primary schools leads to high levels of satisfaction among parents (as high as 79 per cent), reducing the demand for change.
How much demand exists is important because recent trends suggest Ireland’s major political parties avoid acting until sufficient public support is achieved. This threshold was around 60 per cent in both the marriage equality and abortion campaigns. In both campaigns, the issue was narrowed to a binary, yes-versus-no decision on whether to amend the Constitution. In education, reducing or eliminating the role of religion in Ireland’s schools is more complex. There are multiple issues and competing constitutional rights involved. Also, proposed educational changes affect more than just individuals and families. Whole communities are affected by changes to the patronage a of schools, admissions policies and the overall curriculum. This elevates the intensity of local politics and the importance of how much demand exists.
Much criticism for the slow pace of change has been laid at the feet of the Church. But with the issue of divestment, for example, the strong gravitational pull of local interests and school communities appears to be the driving factor in shaping whether divestment is possible. When schools feared closure, virtually nothing could stop these communities from keeping their schools open even if it meant changing their patron and subsequent ethos. Likewise, when local school communities were largely satisfied with the status quo, virtually nothing could budge them to alter their school patronage. The Church, however, does need to show greater will to get to a real resolution of more education models. Relinquishing schools is a hard decision, but it would allow the ones the Church keeps to be authentically Catholic schools. This would require the Church to divest or amalgamate Catholic schools – despite local opposition. So far, they have proven unwilling or unable to do this on any large scale.
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[ Schools have ‘no legal basis’ to force students to attend religion classes ]
Local opposition plays out differently with the various issues within education reform. For instance, divestment, in addition to greater will on the part of Church and State to face down local opposition, requires adjudicating competing constitutional rights. For admissions, the issue is framed in terms of protecting individual rights and preventing discrimination, similar to the previous marriage equality and abortion campaigns. The emphasis on protecting children’s rights elevated support within an Irish society that was eager to overcome Ireland’s historically bad track record for protecting children from abusive individuals and institutions.
Curricular changes are also being framed in equality language by underscoring the needs of non-religious and minority religious students and by encouraging Catholic schools to find alternative ways to pass on their faith. Furthermore, by taking advantage of mounting popular support for diversity, pluralism, tolerance and inclusion to attract support, the admissions and curricular reforms avoided a strong, concentrated and organised opposition at local level. Yet even here, there are competing interests. One proposed solution has been to shift religion classes outside school hours so students and parents can opt-in to religious education. Defenders of Catholic schools fear that ending integrating religion throughout the curriculum would be the death of the Catholic ethos. Thus, the realities and needs of various actors add complexity to any proposed changes.
Reform in the primary education sector has different timelines. Politicians generally think in terms of the next election, civil servants in terms of careers, campaigners in terms of generations and the Church commonly in terms of centuries – or eternity! Children, who only get one childhood and one time to grow up in the Irish education system, depend on their parents and other stakeholders to make decisions that shape their experience. Parents also have a critical role, but they often act to protect their own family’s immediate interests without making choices with the broader common good in mind. These varied time horizons influence how leaders within these different sectors make strategic decisions to achieve their short-term, medium-term and long-term goals. These varied and often competing interests explain the glacial pace of education reform in this era of secularisation.
Sean McGraw is the co-author with Jonathan Tiernan of The Politics of Irish Primary Education: Reform in an Era of Secularisation (Peter Lang, 2022). He is visiting professor of political science at Boston College.
[ Parents may not get to choose patron of ‘reconfigured’ Catholic schoolsOpens in new window ]
