90% of primary schools are Catholic [IrishExaminer]
- Published: 02 April 2011
IN the last five years more than 50 primary schools have opened around the country, mostly in areas where new communities have grown around housing developments.
Just over half of them are multi-denominational, with 19 of them under Educate Together’s patronage. Multi-denominational schools — where children of all faiths and none have equal access to enrolment, and instruction in each child’s religion is generally done outside school time — now account for about 2% of the country’s 3,169 primary schools.
But while they dominate new schools being developed, Catholic bishops are patrons to 13 new primary schools in the same five years and one in every four of the 100 to open in the last decade. Although slightly falling as a proportion due to other models, 90% of all primary schools are still under Catholic patronage.
From being different to just being an alternative [IrishExaminer]
- Published: 02 April 2011
AT Cork Educate Together National School about three-quarters of the school’s 215 pupils are from Irish families, mostly in the local inner-city community or parts of the northside.
The profile is quite different to most of the dozens of multi-denominational schools to open over the last decade, which cater for a more diverse mix of nationalities and ethnic backgrounds in areas of rapidly growing population. But its ethos is exactly the same.
Just like in every other primary school in the country, religious education is a core part of the daily curriculum that must be taught, but every school’s approach is left to the patron rather than being set down by the Department of Education. A core aim of the overall curriculum for primary schools is to enable children to develop spiritual, moral and religious values, while schools are expected to allow pupils develop a knowledge and understanding of their own religious traditions and beliefs and respect for those of others.
Pressure building toward progress [IrishExaminer]
- Published: 02 April 2011
Ruairí Quinn’s moves to transfer some Catholic schools to other patrons has been well received, writes Education Correspondent Niall Murray
THE targets may be ambitious but Education Minister Ruairi Quinn’s signal soon after being appointed last month that he wants to see half the primary schools under Catholic control transferred to other patrons has been warmly greeted.
The Catholic bishops, who are patrons to 90% of the country’s 3,165 primary schools, have welcomed the Forum on Patronage and Plurality in Primary Schools and agreed to participate and some of the impetus has already come from within the hierarchy.
Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has said that while the transfer of primary schools from the patronage of the Catholic hierarchy will face opposition, it is time for movement.
The brief set out by the minister requires the forum to have regard to the Catholic church’s expressed willingness to consider divesting patronage of primary schools.
CORK CHURCH OF IRELAND BISHOP SEEKS CLARIFICATION OF ROLE OF PROTESTANTS IN EDCU [96fm.ie]
- Published: 01 April 2011
The Church of Ireland Bishop of Cork , Doctor Paul Colton is asking the new Government to clarify the role of rotestants in providing education in Ireland into the future. Bishop Colton is also looking for the legal advice the previous Government , received from the Attorney General concerning Protestant schools to be made public. The Bishop was speaking at the annual convention of , the Association of Community and Comprehensive Schools in Wexford where he told delegates that this is a time of , great apprehension and uncertainty among Protestants involved in edcuation. Bishop Colton says the main concerns are the proposed redeployment of surplus staff on a cross patronage basis at primary level , the possible outcomes of reviews of smaller schools by the value for money working group , withdrawal of grants , and current indications that capital funding to Protestant , voluntary second level schools may be reduced.
Full Story: www.96fm.ie
Irish county loses last Catholic secondary school [belfasttelegraph.co.uk]
- Published: 31 March 2011
A county in the Republic of Ireland will have no Catholic secondary school next year in a new chapter in the history of Irish education.
Catholic school managers are worried about the decline in their numbers and say it is time to call a halt.
Co Leitrim will lose its only Catholic secondary school from September 2012, when the Fatima and Felim's, in Ballinamore, currently under the joint trusteeship of the Sisters of Mercy and the Diocese of Kilmore, become part of a new community school.
Next September, Abbeyfeale, Limerick, loses its only Catholic secondary school when the 340-pupil St Joseph's, previously run by the Mercy Order, becomes part of a new community college.
In September 2012, the Ard Scoil Mhuire, FCJ, in Bruff, Limerick, will close.
The Department of Education and Skills has not approved any new Catholic second-level school for 20 years, a period that has also seen a decline of 109 in their overall number.
Full Story: www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk
