The complex process of divestment from traditional religious instruction in Catholic schools is to be explored with a view to beginning to introduce a change by 2014.

Minister for Education and Skills Ruairí Quinn hopes to replace faith-formation methods of religious instruction in Catholic primary schools in areas where parents don't have the option to send children to a non-denominational school.

“I hope that over a relatively short period of time – but having respect to the process of the delivery of education in the school itself – that the choice of schools will be much more diverse than it currently is. And that in areas where there is just the one school which is funded by the taxpayer, and to which all children go, not only would that school be inclusive and welcoming as they are at the moment, but they would be respectful to the rights of children as indicated in the various international agreements that we’ve signed up for,” Mr Quinn said.

In areas with multiple schools, he hoped one school could divest to become an Educate Together or other non-denominational school.

Standalone schools
However, some 1,700 standalone schools that serve the wider community had been identified, Mr Quinn said, and methods as to how to remove faith-formative teaching in these schools needed to be explored.

“In the areas [where] there will be no additional school and this is the only school that’s serving that community, we have to find a way in which existing rights, underpinned by international law and decisions of the Oireachtas, can be implemented in the classroom and the school – and we are trying to explore that,” he said.

Speaking at a conference on religious education at University College Cork, Mr Quinn referenced a Department of Education survey on parental preferences for primary school patronage undertaken in 43 areas (each with a number of schools).

Released last April, the survey found 23 areas in which parents were in favour of a change in school patronage. Of those areas, between 2.2 per cent and 8 per cent of parents with children in school favoured change, according to Fr Michael Drumm of the Irish Bishops’ Conference’s council for education.

World religions
Mr Quinn said that while the decision to replace traditional religion teaching with the teaching of world religions is a matter for the patron of the school to decide, the object of the exercise was to recognise "the primacy of parental choice".

Meanwhile, the Minister has launched a public consultation process that will feed into the Government’s international education strategy. The strategy is meant to increase the numbers of international students who attend higher education here and was published in 2010.

There had been good progress in delivering the strategy in partnership with the education sector, and this had led to growth in students coming here, Mr Quinn said yesterday.

However, the 2013 Action Plan for Jobs released earlier this year argued for a focused review of the strategy to be carried out by Mr Quinn’s department.