In my opinion: State schools must offer choice of education free of religious bias [Independent.ie]
- Published: 17 March 2010
Current moves to establish constitutional safeguards for children are sadly lacking in content.
The Oireachtas Committee has come up with a referendum wording which fails to address the greatest abuse of children's rights in our nation's institutions.
The fact is children (and their parents) cannot exercise the Constitutional 'right of any child to attend school receiving public money without attending religious instruction at that school' (article 44.2.4), and the Committee seems to have wilfully ignored the problem.
Successive Ministers of Education have set these rights at nought by fostering a curriculum which integrates religion with all subjects, and they have underpinned a school's right to a pervasive 'ethos' (which has no Constitutional basis) in State-funded schools.
Full Story: www.independent.ie
