Educate Together, the organisation for multi-denominational education in national schools has announced plans to move into the second-level school system.
There are currently 19 Educate Together primary schools that are fully recognised by the Department of Education. These are set up and democratically run by groups of parents in a local area and are based around an inclusive, multi-denominational coeducational ethos.
The organisation intends to bring this ethos into the post-primary school system by opening a national network of secondary schools within the next five years and having the Educate Together model incorporated into existing schools. Speaking at the launch of their new strategy, Educate Together chairperson Paul Rowe said that the proposed move into the secondary school system was necessary to deal with, "the current crisis in secondary school provision."
He said that in some areas, most notably Lucan in west county Dublin, parents were unable to get their children into local secondary schools because of the lack of places. He also said that their was a current demand for the "inclusive" type of education provided by the Educate Together model due to emerging diversities in society.
In failing to address this issue, he said, "we are not simply failing our obligations on human rights issues, we are failing our obligations to an entire future generation of Irish people."
Rowe maintains that the demand for multi-denominational secondary education is not limited to parents who have sent their children to the Educate Together national schools. "Our inclusive ethos and our commitment to development needs appeals to parents," Rowe said.
All new Educate Together national schools are equipped with special-needs units, including an autistic unit in the Celbridge school and a language-support unit in Galway. This principle, he said, would be carried over into the secondary-education model.
"The involvement of children with a variety of needs and abilities enhances education for all," Rowe said.
He stressed that theirs was a "philosophy of education" and was not about control of schools. he said the group had "good relations" with the Catholic church. "We guarantee all denominations respect." Children in Educate Together schools were, he said, "supported in their identity but taught to recognise and respect the beliefs of others".
