Sir - As one who teaches in a religious run school, I wish to add my voice to the growing concern of many to certain features contained in the Education Bill, 1997. The general thrust appears to want to deprive the patrons/owners of schools of their influence in Irish education, only to fill the vacuum by imposing State control on these Church run schools. Church authorities have always been concerned to safeguard their spiritual values and traditions, as part of the birthright of their flocks, and this through a system of ownership and denominational education.
There is a clear danger that the proposed regional education boards will create a new layer of bureaucracy, adding to existing costs and resulting in a reduction of funding for many schools. The suggestion to make the establishment of boards of management as a precondition for State funding, is, I believe, a fundamental flaw.
This means, in effect, that religious owned schools may no longer be managed in accordance with the wishes of their owners. In short, the price for receiving funding is to surrender the control of the school to a board of management in which the owner's interest will in future be that of a minority holding.
I believe that should this draft Bill ever be enacted, it will require a substantial overhaul so as to meet the concerns of the Church owners of schools and thus safeguard the future of denominational education, a right recognised under the Irish Constitution. - Yours, etc.,
Dip. Cath.,
Lawrence Grove,
Clontarf,
Dublin 3.