Sir, – Jane Donnelly of Atheist Ireland (January 4th) is seriously mistaken when she asserts that the European Convention on Human Rights requires states to “ensure that the [religion] curriculum is delivered in an objective, critical and pluralistic manner”.
What the convention simply requires is that parents must have a right to withdraw their children from religious education class if such classes are not delivered in an “objective, critical and pluralistic manner”.
However, nothing in the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights prevents schools, including State schools, from providing religious education in a manner that favours one religion.
If State schools are permitted to provide religious education in a manner that favours a particular religion, then this right belongs even more strongly to denominational schools.– Yours, etc,