Real reform in education needed more than ever [labour.ie]
- Published: 13 October 2010
The Education (Amendment) Bill 2010 is a disappointing piece of legislation which has taken more than two years to produce. It fails, in its fundamental objective, to place the patronage of Vocational Education Committee (VEC) primary schools under the control of the local community and answerable to local elected representatives.
Under the proposals of the Minister for Education and Skills, the Board of Management of a VEC primary school would not be a sub-committee of that VEC, but rather a completely autonomous body. This means that democratically elected members of the VEC will, by law, not have the same relationship to the new VEC primary school that they currently have to existing VEC schools.
The Minister and her supporters have proposed that the VEC is the rightful custodian of community interests as it is accountable, democratically, to the community. But that accountability, as proposed under this legislation, will not extend to the new VEC Boards of Management in the new primary schools.
Under Ireland's system of primary school Patronage, which dates as far back as the famous Stanley letter of 1831, Christian Churches of different denominations were invited to come forward as Patrons of primary schools. The State pays the salaries and related cost of schools and provides a National Curriculum which must be adhered to by the Patron. In return, the ethos of the Patron, in other words its religious beliefs, can be taught in the school and pupils instructed in the tenets of the faith of the Patron.
Article 42 of our Constitution recognises the family as the primary educator of the child.
Children are guaranteed the right to primary education and must attend school.
The same Constitution requires the State to provide for primary education, which it does through the present system of Patronage.
Full Story: www.labour.ie
