A chara, – On school patrons and "agendas", Gary Doyle (Letters, March 19th) wrote: "Voluntary organisations with the values of equality and respect at their core, championing the primacy of parents in the education of their own children in line with their constitutional rights – surely that's an agenda we can all get behind?"
Indeed. And that description applies to school patron organisations who run Gaelscoileanna and church schools, not just to “a small group of pioneering parents instigated a campaign to have children educated together, free from any religious agenda”.
To want a school “free from any religious agenda” is also a valid agenda. It is not, however, an “equality-based school” for those who wish their children to attend a school with a religious agenda.
Those organisations which run Gaelscoileanna and church schools are not the ones to blame for the lack of schools without a religious or linguistic agenda. It has been clear for many years that the State has failed to ensure adequate schools of different “agendas” are available. –Is mise,
PÁDRAIG McCARTHY,
Sandyford,
Dublin 16.
Sir, – Gary Doyle (Letters, March 19th) appears to be of the opinion that school patrons such as Educate Together are solely responsible for “thousands of children . . . being educated together in an atmosphere of equality and respect” .
Does that invariably mean that any child not in an Educate Together school is educated in an atmosphere of inequality and disrespect? Quite the assumption. – Yours, etc,
AILEEN HOOPER,
Stoneybatter,
Dublin 7.