THE Church of Ireland and the Catholic Church are confident, that remaining problems over a much delayed agreement on the running of primary schools can be ironed out within the next fortnight.
The Governance of Primary Schools Agreement was concluded last November between the parents, teachers and school owners, including the churches, after two years of often difficult negotiations.
It made provision for new boards of management consisting of two elected parents, the school principal and an elected teacher, and two owners' nominees; this core group would then co opt two more members from the wider community. The owner or patron would continue to appoint the chairperson.
However, when the agreement was passed to the Attorney General's office for its constitutionality to be checked, lawyers there found that one and perhaps two of its clauses could be unconstitutional.
The most problematic clause was one in the proposed deed of trust between the Minister for Education and the Church of Ireland which laid down that the Church of Ireland would have "absolute discretion" to decide whether to accept non Church of Ireland pupils into its schools.
Last December the INTO general secretary, Senator Joe O'Toole, criticised this clause. Any system which excluded children from local schools on the basis of their religion could only be described as sectarian", he said.
The Church of Ireland said it was deeply offensive" to call an enrolment policy which would allow its schools to give priority to Church of Ireland children sectarian.
Last month senior officials from the Attorney General's office and the Department of Education, including the departmental secretary, Dr Don Thornhill, had talks with Church of Ireland representatives about the clause.
It is understood that the Church of Ireland is now prepared to remove the word "absolute", but is anxious to retain the principle that Church of Ireland school management boards should have the final say in who does and does not gain admission to their schools.
Last week Bishop Thomas Flynn, the Catholic hierarchy's education spokesman, emphasised that the Catholic bishops fully approved the new primary school agreement and looked forward to implementing it as soon as it was cleared by the Attorney General's office.
In January a number of Catholic bishops had indicated that they would not implement the agreement until religious run schools were exempted from a new anti discrimination Bill. An amendment to this legislation has now satisfied the hierarchy.
The secretary of the Catholic Primary School Managers' Association, Sister Eileen Randles, said last week she expected movement on the remaining obstacles to implementing the agreement within two weeks.
However, Government sources said there was still a problem with agreeing the criteria for admission of pupils to Church of Ireland schools.
The chairwoman of the National Parents Council Primary, Ms Fionnuala Kilfeather, said yesterday that chaos had been caused by the elections delay.
She said some schools were now without effective boards. In some schools parent representatives had dropped off; and in some areas the Catholic bishops had gone ahead and organised the election of new boards without waiting for the new rules.