I know this is a revolutionary concept but why not let the Department of Education run the schools and not have any private patronage, religious or otherwise?

Bramley Hawthorne hits the nail on the head. Dividing schools into sub-groups, whether religious or language-based or other cultural aspect does not equalise educational opportunity. It serves the purpose of separating responsibility for delivery of education from the Department of Education transferring it to self-appointed groups in a manner similar to our troubled healthcare system. Religion should not be the issue. The Department should concern itself with an equitable distribution of resources, which no doubt it strives to do. But if the underlying policy is skewed, then all we will have is a future generation labelled by their parents choice, and ironically not their own.
I’m quite sure that in a single standard school system the religious congregations could accommodate the state with regard to the teaching of religion where the Department would accommodate the parents wishes. Is there a need for patronage?

You want it – then pay for it! The State should not express favouritism towards any religion. The State should not fund religious schools. If relgious people wish for children to attend religious schools they should pay for it – not the taxpayer. This is not an issue just for parents of particular areas as funding to pay for same comes from general taxation i.e. everyone.

The most school system in demand at the moment is the “Educate Together” school system.
Non-religious, non-biased in any way and and are an excellent education process on a daily basis.

People continue to state how much the church has contributed to irish education. What about everything Ireland has contributed to the church; money, innocence, trust? We could have bought them out on church collections alone I’m sure.

Scrap The catholic power buzz and let some of Ireland’s great teachers teach!

65 Naíonraí (Irish medium preschools) have opened in the past 3 years mainly in the Leinster area. Yet only 2 Gaelscoileanna have been given permission to open. There is a huge demand for Irish medium education throughout the state with the increased awareness amongst parents in recent years of the benefits of bilingualism and biliteracy at an early age, using the total early immersion model of the Gaelscoileanna and other immersion schools throughout the world.

If the State pays for the teachers, the books, the admin staff etc. then Religion should be removed from the Class Room or at least all religons major religions should be taught, also work towards confirmation and communion should be removed from the school timetable. If parents want this tuition then pay for it outside school time.

by removing religion from the school maybe children could learn usefull things like maths or physics.

More info at: http://www.gaelscoileanna.ie or http://www.foras.ie
Incidentally Gaelscoileanna can be denominational (e.g. Catholic), interdenominational (e.g. Catholic and Church of Ireland) or multi-denominational (like E.T. Schools).

I urge anybody consulted to choose non-denominational or multi-denominational to at least give a chance to the many parents (whether religious or not) who do not want their children to be segregated by religion. Even if you are Christian, spare a thought for parents who are not religious yet have no choice but to send their children to religious schools because there is no state school that can accommodate their child. It’s not as if non-religious people are asking for atheist schools – just schools that cater for all children equally regardless of religious background as part of a publicly-funded education system – this is currently not happening – these services are actually operating in a discriminatory and sectarian way.

This approach cannot possibly work. If any religion is overrepresented in any given school area, at any given time, the minority be forced to have their children taught the same. Example if Scientologists represented 70% of the population in a given school area children of no religion would be exposed to Scientology dogma. If the Scientologists population then decreases in favour of a dominant Islamic one Jewish children would be exposed to Islamic dogma? In multi cultural societies, which Ireland now is, this approach is absurd and doomed to failure. The only logical way of resolving this problem is to remove all religious dogma from the State Education system.

The nuns used to teach me in national school, they were firm but fair!

Why will the only people consulted be parents who presently have kids at school?

Everyone who contributes to a school’s upkeep should have a voice ie every taxpayer in the area.

This is a real no brainer, the educational system is there to educate people not indoctrinate them. Show kids how to think not what to think. How dare the state allow brainwashing of our youth at the cost of the tax payer.
Is there not enough evidence that the Church cannot be trusted with our children. What is all this crap about “child protection” ? Keep the clergy away from kids and away from the schools….problem solved.

” we owe a debt to religious bodies for their contribution to education”
Has to be the stupidest thing this bollix had ever said .

Right so! Let’s send even more children to be brainwashed , we might get lucky and none will be raped and buggered this time…

Teachers should run schools not priests, not just because of the disgrace they are but maybe because children will get a fair education and can choose religion later in life if they please and nkt b brain washed in school

My motherr was Irish – born in Greystones. This is tremendous news for all Irish kids, but use as much influence as you can to speed up the process. Viva the (second!) Enlightenment…!

Those Irish schools are a joke.

Most kids are enrolled to them because they are more expensive and therefore the kids mix with a higher social class.

I’ve tried all kinds of different schools with my five over the past 18 years in an attempt to avoid them going to schools that were run by a Roman Catholic patron. I would love to see a combination of educate together schools that teach through Irish. My two youngest in the end went to a Gaelscoil and it was a wonderful experience, but it still has a religious bias. Get religion out of school and into the individual homes . If people want a religious education for their children then let the local parish run after school RE lessons and first holy communion and confirmation preparation classes. Then The families who want that for their children make a commitment to the classes and the ceremony and those who don’t , don’t have to. It doesn’t discriminate it allows for proper individual choice I think.