Cherishing Children’s Rights - 28th February 2003

“Cherishing Children’s Rights" will take place on the 28th February-1st March, 2003 at City West Hotel Dublin. The conference will focus on children’s rights and practical issues on the delivery of the ethical core curriculum in Educate Together schools. Many of the speakers are parents who passionately believe they have gone the extra mile in order to create the environment most suitable to their idea of child centered education.

Speakers from the conference are available for interview. These include,

• Ray Dooley, Children’s Rights Alliance. Raymond Dooley is the Chief Executive of the Children's Rights Alliance, a coalition of more than seventy Irish non-governmental organizations concerned with the rights and needs of children. The Alliance works to secure the implementation in Ireland of the principles and provisions of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
• Paul Rowe, CEO of Educate Together.
• Carmel Mulcahy, School of Education Studies, DCU
• Frieda McGovern, Principal North Bay Educate Together National School
• Mary Kelleher, Director, Educate Together
• David Denny, Chairperson, Educate Together

At the conference Paul Rowe, CEO, Educate Together said,
“ This conference is a great opportunity for open and frank discussion on the number changes that have to be made on the way religion and ethics are taught in Irish schools. Educate Together has developed a tested model that can provide for the future of State funded education in Ireland. It is necessary for the Irish government to respond to the demands of our rapidly diversifying society promoting structural change in education. There is a wealth of experience within the Educate Together sector with many years of experience operating, multicultural and democratically managed schools.”

The progress of the Educate Together sector is a strong indication of the growing demand from the general public for schools that respect and cherish the rights of children from all religious, social and cultural backgrounds and the need for their children to be educated in a safe and respectful environment. Throughout Ireland an increasing number of voluntary groups of parents are establishing and developing schools, which are multi-denominational, child centered, co-educational and democratically managed. Last year seven new schools were opened, more than twice the number of new schools opened by all other sectors of education. There are now 28 such schools with another 7 to come on stream in the coming year.