Religion and schools (1 Viewer)

I love how there's a whole thread about how yous don't want religion in schools and yous are all atheists but still can't help throwing in a wee anti-protestant dig. :D
 
I'm not Catholic/Christian. Herself is pretty much a non-believer.
My son is in second year at a Catholic school.
He's getting a good education.
End of.
 
I'm not Catholic/Christian. Herself is pretty much a non-believer.
My son is in second year at a Catholic school.
He's getting a good education.
End of.

It's not the 'end of' at all though. It might not matter to you that your child goes to a school run by a particular religious group, but it definitely matters that most parents have no option other than to use these schools.
 
'technically' being an important qualifier in that setence Anthony. Didn't prevent me and the other non-Catholics being frog marched to Mass on the Feast of the Assumption or whatever along with everyone else. They even tried to make us take communion!

Of course, that may have changed. I still take the view that religion has no place in state funded schools, it is something that parents and their own churches should take care of.
 
It's not the 'end of' at all though. It might not matter to you that your child goes to a school run by a particular religious group, but it definitely matters that most parents have no option other than to use these schools.
I think it matters more to the parents than it does to the children.
When I say 'end of', I mean only in our particular circumstance. He doesn't mind his religion class. He enjoys singing in the christmas concert in the church etc.
It's not black and white. He is taught about jesus in school, but he's also taught about Sarasvati, Kali Ma and Satan at home.
It's all about balance for a young chap of his age.
 
just got this response from minister o'keefe about the provision of multi-denominational schools in my area.

The Forward Planning Section of the Department has carried out a study of
the country to identify the areas where, due to demographic changes, there
may be a requirement for significant additional school provision at both
primary and post-primary levels over the coming years. This study has been
conducted using data from the Central Statistics Office, the General
Register Office and the Department of Social & Family Affairs in addition
to recent schools' enrolment data. The study indicates that the
requirement for additional primary provision in years 2010, 2011 and 2012
is likely to be greatest in more than 40 selected locations across the
country based on significant changes to the demographics of those areas.
The Dublin 8 area is not included in these locations.
In September 2008, the Minister announced a review of the procedures for
the establishment of new primary schools under the Commission on School
Accommodation. It is expected that this review will be completed and
revised arrangements will be in place within a two year time frame.
In the interim it is not proposed to recognise any new primary schools,
except
in areas where the increases in pupil numbers cannot be catered for in or
by expanding
existing schools.
A preliminary examination of primary school enrolments in the Dublin 8
area indicates a decline in excess of 100 pupils between the 2008 and 2009
school year. Consistent with the position on the recognition of new
schools and taking the enrolment situation in the Dublin 8 area into
consideration, my Department is not, therefore, considering providing
extra accommodation in that area at this time.
Yours sincerely
Batt O?Keeffe, T.D.
Minister for Education and Science

completely avoids the central issue.
 
Amazingly enough I got the same one!

For anyone interested, there is a campaign underway to set up a new multi-denominational school in Dublin 8 (or nearby). Anyone with childer in the area may be interested in checking it out ...

http://www.portobellomds.org/
 
Amazingly enough I got the same one!

For anyone interested, there is a campaign underway to set up a new multi-denominational school in Dublin 8 (or nearby). Anyone with childer in the area may be interested in checking it out ...

http://www.portobellomds.org/

Can't see the numbers justifying a new school in D8 any time soon by the Dept's criteria, which as you can see from the above are very basic and very rigid.
You're generally not allowed to assume too large of a catchment for primary schools in an urban area due to traffic generation, congestion etc.

The Parents above would be better off trying to take over a 'failing' school and premises (like what happened with Educate Together in Kilbarrack apparentley) and move ahead from there rather than starting from scratch, there must be grossly under enroled schools in the south inner city?. The Forward Planning team in the Dept of Education has improved slightly over the years from a very poor knowledge base and amount of staff numbers employed in research, but they still don't have much of a clue. It's a classic lack of joined up thinking you get all the time here dealing with state authorities.
 
We (countmeout) wrote to O'Keeffe a few months back as well and got a broadly similar response. The bottom line is that unless there is a significant need for non/multi-denominational schools in a community, all children will have to attend the pre-existing ones in the community, regardless of their religion (or lack thereof). I got the chance to speak to Paul Rowe, CEO of Education Together, last week and he had some interesting thoughts on this. ET are mad to set up new schools especially in the secondary sector but are effectively being stifled by the Govt. He also said he had a number of parents interested in taking a case on the grounds of discrimination but none willing to go through with it in the end.
 
Can't see the numbers justifying a new school in D8 any time soon by the Dept's criteria, which as you can see from the above are very basic and very rigid.

The Parents above would be better off trying to take over a 'failing' school and premises (like what happened with Educate Together in Kilbarrack apparentley) and move ahead from there rather than starting from scratch, there must be grossly under enroled schools in the south inner city?.

Apparently not. They are all pretty much full up at this stage. I don't think there are really any failing schools in the area ...

The real push with this thing is trying to get the Multi-D school on the South Circular (Griffith Barracks) to expand to a 16 classroom school. The Board Of Management there are refusing point blank to consider this. This is in spite of the fact that there is a giant waiting list for places. I can't help thinking it's a case of "we're all right Jack, our kids are in school here already, and we don't care too much about the rest of you". Ultimately they are shooting themselves in the foot because in order to ever get funding to get out of prefabs they are going to have to expand anyway since the Dept want to fund 16-classroom schools and don't want to fund 8-classroom ones.
 
Apparently not. They are all pretty much full up at this stage. I don't think there are really any failing schools in the area ...

The real push with this thing is trying to get the Multi-D school on the South Circular (Griffith Barracks) to expand to a 16 classroom school. The Board Of Management there are refusing point blank to consider this. This is in spite of the fact that there is a giant waiting list for places. I can't help thinking it's a case of "we're all right Jack, our kids are in school here already, and we don't care too much about the rest of you". Ultimately they are shooting themselves in the foot because in order to ever get funding to get out of prefabs they are going to have to expand anyway since the Dept want to fund 16-classroom schools and don't want to fund 8-classroom ones.

A very sorry dilemma to be in. What's the BoM make up of Edu Together schools? is it all parents?
What you describe above could be leading to more unforseen problems down the line, it's human nature to 'pull up the drawbridge' in these situations and with the next census' preliminary results won't be out until spring 2012 it all looks a bit bleak.
 
A very sorry dilemma to be in. What's the BoM make up of Edu Together schools? is it all parents?

I'm not 100% sure. But the funny thing is, Griffith Barracks is not an Educate Together school ... even though everyone assumes it is, and refers to it as such. However, they are probably about to become one .. the patrons of the school are voting on coming under the patronage of ET soon. That may make some difference as they may come under pressure from the ET body to expand ....

Also, anyone can pay a fiver and become a patron of the school ....
 

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