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Educate
Together Schools in the Republic of Ireland
The
First Stage 1975 - 1994
(Article
written by Aine Hyland for Fortnight Educational Trust, Belfast,
Jan. 1993).
Introduction
This
article attempts to give an overview of the development of multi-denominational
schools in the the Republic of Ireland. It looks at the historical
development of primary education in Ireland and the general educational
context within which primary schools operate in the Republic.
It discusses the background to the setting up of multi-denominational
schools, identifying the issues faced by the individual schools
and their present position. It explains the role and activities
of Educate Together - the co-ordinating committee for existing
and prospective schools. The article also briefly addresses a
number of other related issues - the indirect role which the setting
up of these schools has had in encouraging and developing an attitude
of self-help and creative enterprise; in developing a sense of
community in people who might previously have felt marginalised;
in contributing to a more embracing sense of Irish identity; in
helping adults as well as children to develop skills in conflict-resolution
through having to resolve problems which arise; in helping to
develop a sense of democracy; in the empowerment of women. The
article concludes by discussing the key problems faced by the
sector at this point in its development and by suggesting ways
in which the forthcoming White Paper and educational legislation
in the Republic might help to overcome these problems.
An
Overview of the Evolution of the System of Primary (national)
Education in Ireland.
When
the national school system was set up in 1831, its main object
"was to unite in one system children of different creeds".
The National Board was "to look with peculiar favour"
on applications for aid for schools jointly managed by Roman Catholics
and Protestants. While some of the schools which were taken into
connection with the Board in the early years were jointly managed,
the main Christian Churches put pressure on the government to
allow aid to be given to schools under the management of individual
Churches.1 This pressure was so effective
that by the mid nineteenth century, only 4% of national schools
were under mixed management.2
In
terms of the curriculum, the main principle of 19th and early
20th century primary education in Ireland was that schools should
offer "combined moral and literary instruction and separate
religious instruction"3. While the National Board set down the curriculum for moral
and literary instruction, the Patron of each school determined
the form and content of religious instruction in the schools under
his patronage. The rules for national schools in the Republc to
the present day state that "no pupil shall receive or be
present at any religious instruction of which his parents or guardians
do
not approve"4 and also "that
the periods of formal religious instruction shall be fixed so
as to facilitate the withdrawal of (such) pupils".5 The principle of mixed education remained the keystone of
the national school system from 1831 to 1965. However in practice
by the beginning of the twentieth century the national system
had developed in such a way that virtually all schools were under
denominational Church management. In this respect, the Irish system
of national education was fundamentally different to systems of
education in Great Britain where "parallel" systems
had evolved, i.e. denominational schools existed side by side
with local authority controlled schools.6
It
is significant to note that there is no legislation underpinning
primary education in the Republic of Ireland. While educational
legislation was introduced in Northern Ireland in 1923, no legislative
measures were introduced to change the control system of national
education in the south which remained de facto denominational.
Virtually all national schools were under the Patronage and management
of either the Catholic or Protestant churches. From the early
1930s onwards, a Jewish national school was also recognised and
funded by the state authorities.
In
1953, the Council of Education issued its report on the function
and curriculum of primary schools and drew attention to what it
regarded as an anomaly in the situation in regard to the control
and management of national schools. The report pointed out that
the theoretical object of the national school system "is
at variance with the principles of all religious denominations
and with the realities of the primary schools and consequently
that it needs restatement". It was suggested that "it
be amended in accordance with Article 44.2.4. of the Constitution
and that the fullness of denominational education may be legally
sanctioned in those schools which are attended exclusively by
children of the same religious faith" 7(author's italics). It was noted in the report that at that
time 97% of national schools in the Republic were in fact attended
exclusively by children of the same religious faith.
When
the Rules for National Schools were eventually revised by the
Minister for Education in 1965, no cognisance was taken of the
fact that not all national schools were attended exclusively by
children of the same denomination. Neither was there any provision
made for parents who might not wish their children to attend denominational
schools, although Article 42.4. of the 1937 Constitution of Ireland
which recognised "the rights of parents, especially in the
matter of religious and moral formation' was quoted. In the preface
to the new Rules (1965 edition), the following statement was made:8
It
is difficult to understand how articles 42 and 44.2.4 could have
been construed in this way. It was one thing to recognise that
denominational schools would be an acceptable element in the system
and to guarantee that all schools would receive equal treatment
- it was quite a different thing to say that all schools were
necessarily denominational and to enshrine such a statement in
the official Rules for National Schools.
The
publication of a new curriculum in 1971 added a further complication
to the situation.9 The new curriculum,
which was widely welcomed for its many innovations, encouraged
the integration of subjects, both religious and "secular"
subjects. In the introduction to Part 1 of the Teachers' Handbook,
it was stated that the curriculum should be seen "more as
an integral whole rather than as a logical structure containing
conveniently differentiated parts." The handbook was specific
that this integration should embrace all aspects of the curriculum:10
Taken
together, the rules of 1965 and the provisions of the 1971 curriculum
created a new situation. The state now formally recognised the
denominational character of the national school system and made
no provision for, nor even adverted to the rights of those children
whose parents did not wish them to attend exclusively denominational
schools or to attend Religious Instruction wthin such schools.
It had removed the requirement for teachers to be sensitive to
the religious beliefs of "those of different religious persuasions".
According to the curriculum guidelines, all schools were expected
to offer an integrated curriculum where religious and secular
instruction would be integrated. While the rule under which parents
were allowed to opt their children out of religious instruction
still remained, the rule became inoperable since religious and
secular instruction would now be integrated. Even if religious
instruction were separately timetabled, it could be assumed that
a specifically denominational ethos would "permeate the school
day."
The
Experience in Dalkey, 1974 - 1988.
There
was a growing interest in education in Ireland in the 1960s and
early 70s. In 1967 free secondary education had been introduced
and there was considerable public debate about educational issues
generally in the late 60s and early 70s. A weekly newspaper "The
Education Times" was published between 1973 and 1975 and
acted as a catalyst for educational debate. Vatican II had encouraged
involvement by the Catholic laity in what had traditionally been
a clerically dominated Church. Some Catholics argued that "a
fairly strong case can be made from the reading of the documents
of Vatican II for the introduction of integrated schools....".11 The troubles in Northern Ireland had erupted afresh and
after 1969 many Irish people were anxious to break down barriers
between Protestant and Catholic on the island of Ireland
In
some areas of Dublin, growing numbers of families from a Catholic
tradition began to send their children to local Church of Ireland
schools, perhaps because they felt that the ethos of such schools
was less pervasive than that of Catholic schools. One such area
was the village of Dalkey in south Co. Dublin. The local Church
of Ireland school, St. Patrick's, had been a national school since
the early 1890s. It had been a one-teacher school for over 60
years.12 In the 1960s it became increasingly
popular and the enrolment began to increase. By 1974 it was a
five teacher school with over 180 pupils on rolls.13
Parents and teachers would have liked the school to
continue to grow to an eight teacher school (one teacher for each
year of the national school cycle). They would also have liked
the school Patron (the C. of I. Archbishop of Dublin) to endorse
the de facto multi-denominational nature of the school and to
introduce a more democratic management structure. However, the
school manager (the local C. of I rector) and the Select Vestry
of the parish were unwilling to go along with the wises of the
parents. Following discussions with the Dept. the manager was
"directed" by the Dept. to restrict enrolment to the
existing capacity of the school. A letter from the Dept. dated
8 March 1974, included the following paragraph:14
This
letter set on record unambiguously the enrolment implications
of the 1965 Rules for National Schools. It also had other implications.
If St. Patrick's National School was unable to accept "other
children" and if the parents of these children did not wish
them to attend the local Catholic school, the state saw no reason
to make provision for them within the national school system.
The
Dalkey School Project was set up in 1975 to focus the commitment
of those who wanted the option of schools within the national
school system, which would be multi-denominational, co-educational
and under a democratic management structure, and which would have
a child-centred approach to education, as indicated in the recently
introduced new Primary Curriculum (1971). The membership of the
new Project included some parents who had been involved in St.
Patrick's N.S. as well as parents and others who had not. The
strategy of the new organisation was to work to get one school
into the system first, rather than argue principle at national
level for many years to come.15 The task confronting the Project was formidable. The national
school system had been undisturbed for over 100 years. There was
an established equilibrium between the Department of Education,
the Churches and the Irish National Teachers Organisation, the
only teacher union representing primary teachers in the Republic
of Ireland. There was a price for the Churches' control of education;
they provided sites for schools and they paid the local contribution
towards the capital and running costs of their schools. The State
paid the salaries of the teaching staff, the larger share of the
capital costs (averaging 85%) and an annual capitation grant (currently
£28 per pupil per annum) towards maintenance costs. The
Dalkey School Project realised that the entry fee for any new
partner into the network would be high and that it would have
to fund-raise on a very large scale if it was to succeed in setting
up a school. The Dalkey School Project constituted itself first
as an Association and later as a Company Limited by guarantee.
It was decided early on to seek recognition as a Patron of national
schools and to attempt to set up a national school within the
existing rules of the Dept. of Education.
Political
support for the option of multi-denominational education within
the national school system began to emerge around the mid 1970s.
The then leader of the Fianna Fáil party, Jack Lynch, in
a newspaper interview in 1975 had expressed support for a multi-denominational
school on a pilot basis and in January 1977, he indicated that
"he sincerely believed we must have some modicum of inter-denominational
education".16 The Labour Party had consistently supported the idea and
individual Fine Gael T.Ds and local Councillors had also indicated
support, although Richard Burke, who was Minister for Education
at the time was hostile to the movement.17
During the years 1975 to 1978 the Dalkey School Project was involved
in protracted correspondence with the political parties and with
the Dept. of Education while simultaneously building up its membership,
establishing the extent of local support for a school,18
organising fund-raising activities and searching for
suitable premises in which to open a school.
In
June 1977, a general election was held. Before the election, Fianna
Fáil had indicated that if they were returned to power,
they would support the setting up of a multi-denominational school
in Dalkey. When Fianna Fáil came to power in July with
John Wilson as Minister for Education, they delivered on their
pre-election promise and the following month the Minister instructed
the Department officials to enter into discussions with the Dalkey
School Project with a view to enabling them to set up a school.
Eventually in September 1978 the D.S.P. national school was opened
- in temporary premises in Dun Laoghaire. There was considerable
difficulty in procuring suitable premises (the building in which
the school started was actually bought for the purpose by Project
supporters since no other building could be secured) and in obtaining
planning permission from the local authority to use the building
as a school.19 Some administrators
at both local and central levels seemed to have difficulty in
accepting that a multi-denominational school could be a valid
part of the national school system. This difficulty was articulated
by a former secretary of the Dept. of Education, T. O Raifeartaigh,
in his keynote address to the E.S.A.I. conference in 197920
and was also evident in an article in Magill magazine in 1988
by Dominic O Laoghaire, who was Secretary of the Dept. of Education
at the time of the opening of the D.S.P. national school, where
he referred to the opening of the Dalkey School Project and other
multi-denominational schools as a "concession".21 However, many departmental and local authority officials
were very helpful to the project in its initial stages and helped
its passage through the complex bureaucratic web which had been
woven throughout the century and a half of the national school
system.
The
D.S.P. national school functioned in temporary premises for six
years, while negotiations and planning for a new permanent purpose-built
school continued. During this time the school grew from 80 pupils
to more than 300 pupils, from three teachers to ten. Places at
the school have always been at a premium and selection is on a
first come first served basis. At the end of the period in temporary
premises the school was on four separate campuses - apart from
the original building, classrooms were made available by the local
Presbyterian Church, the Church of Ireland and the Dun Laoghaire
V.E.C. When the new building was opened in 1984 by Minister for
Education Gemma Hussey, all the political parties were represented,
including former Taoiseach Jack Lynch.
The
task of starting the first multi-denominational school in the
Republic had not been easy. There had not been a great deal of
overt opposition to the movement, but on occasions, opposition
surfaced, as in 1978 when an organisation called the Council for
Social Concern, with an address in Ely Place, launched an attack
on the Dalkey School Project organisers. A circular which was
distributed in the Dalkey area calling on the electorate to contact
their T.Ds. or to write to the Minister for Education registering
their objection to the proposed school, included the following
statement:22
Apart
from the time and energy expended on the Project, the financial
costs had been substantial - the local contribution towards the
cost of setting up the temporary premises, the cost of the new
building and the cost of purchasing the site was in the region
of £150,000 - all of which had been raised by voluntary
contributions and by various fund-raising events. In addition
to these costs, the school management provides the local share
of current costs every year - at present in the region of £12,000
p.a.23
While
the new building for the Dalkey School Project was being built,
other groups with similar aims were active, and in due course
a second school was opened in Bray, Co Wicklow. The school in
Bray opened in 1981 in pre-fabricated classrooms on a site lent
by Bray Vocational Education Committee on the Main St. in Bray.
Like the Dalkey School Project, the enrolment in the Bray school
increased rapidly and within five years it had outgrown its temporary
premises. After some difficulty, the Project acquired a site about
2 km. outside the town and in 1990 a purpose built 8 classroom
school with a room for remedial teaching, a school library, and
a school hall was formally opened by the Minister for Education,
Mary O'Rourke, T.D. Like the Dalkey School Project, the Bray S.P.
also had to engage in considerable fund-raising to provide the
cost of the site and the local contribution for their new school
building - in their case the total came to over £120,000.
Also like Dalkey, the Bray School Project is registered as a Limited
Company and is Patron of the school. However, it is worth noting
that the Bray group worked closely with Dalkey S.P. in the early
months and years of its existence and it was originally intended
that the Dalkey School Project would act as Patron of both schools.
However, the Department of Education refused to accept this proposal
and insisted that the Bray School Project acted independently
as Patron of its own school. At the time of writing, the Bray
School Project is happy with its new accommodation but because
of space restrictions, like Dalkey, it can only accept about half
of the children who apply.
North
Dublin National School Project, Glasnevin 1984
North
Dublin National School Project was set up in the early 1980s and
from the start had a close relationship with Dalkey and Bray.
In 1984, the North Dublin group negotiated a lease with the Board
of Works for an empty Model School building in Glasnevin and opened
as a national school in September of that year. This building
which had housed a multi-denominational model school from the
middle of the 19th century until the foundation of the Free State
in 1921, had more recently been used as temporary premises by
an all Irish school and subsequently by a special school for mentally
handicapped children. Both groups had moved to new purpose-built
schools in the early 1980s and the old Model School was empty.
Like
Dalkey and Bray, North Dublin N.S. Project grew rapidly and within
a few years, most of the playground space had to be used to accommodate
pre-fabricated buildings. Since 1987 the Project has spent considerable
time and energy in trying to find a site on which a new building
might be erected. This search was temporarily halted in the late
80s and early 90s when the Department of Education made it clear
that they would not favour grant aiding a new building while numbers
were falling in denominational schools in the area, and classrooms
and school buildings were lying empty. The Project's energies
were then refocused on trying to acquire one of these premises,
but despite the combined efforts of the Project and officials
of the Department of Education, the attempt proved fruitless.
The Catholic Church authorities in the Archdiocese of Dublin,
who are the legal owners of buildings being sought, were not prepared
to negotiate the transfer of these buildings either to the Department
or to the N.D.N.S.P.
The
current situation for the school is frustrating. The old model
school building - now almost 150 years old - is overcrowded and
inadequate. The Department is reluctant to grant-aid a new school
building in circumstances where there are empty or partially empty
schools in the area. The N.D.N.S.P. has tried every avenue to
gain access to these buildings without success. They have now
refocused their attention on trying to acquire a site and on convincing
the decision-makers, political and bureaucratic, that this is
the only realistic option. But acquiring a site is not easy in
an area which is within 3 km. of the city centre and where land
is exorbitantly expensive. Under current Department regulations,
no grant aid is available for the purchase of a school site. In
an area where sufficient land to build a school could cost £250,000
on the open market, the task facing the N.D.N.S.P. is even more
formidable than that faced by Dalkey and Bray.
Meanwhile,
in spite of its unsuitable premises, N.D.N.S.P. has to turn away
almost as many pupils every year as it can accommodate. Some of
the disappointed parents in the north Dublin area decided to try
and get sanction for another school and their efforts were rewarded
in 1991 when the North Bay National School was set up (see below).
1984
- Setting up of Educate Together
The
Dalkey and Bray groups had worked closely together in 1980 and
1981 when Bray was seeking permission to open a school. In 1983
and 1984 Dalkey and Bray had supported the North Dublin group
and met regularly with them to advise them on a variety of issues.
By this stage there were indications that other groups around
the country were interested in setting up multi-denominational
schools and it was decided to set up a committee - Educate Together
- to co-ordinate the existing groups and to support new groups.
1984-1987
No
new school opened between 1984 and 1987 but a number of Projects
began to develop. While the first three Projects had been set
up in the greater Dublin area, the next phase of development was
concentrated in cities and towns outside Dublin. Between 1985
and 1987 four Projects were set up and became Associate members
of Educate Together - Waterford, Cork, Sligo and Kilkenny. A further
Project was set up in the South Dublin area in 1985 - supported
largely by parents of children who could not be accepted in the
Dalkey School Project because of the lack of space there. Unfortunately,
both the Waterford and the South Dublin School Projects became
inactive by 1986 and 1988 respectively. While they both had viable
numbers on their pre-enrolment list to start a school and had
met regularly for two years or more, they had failed to find a
premises in which to start and became disillusioned.
Sligo,
Kilkenny and Cork were more successful and in 1987 all three projects
managed to get a school started. They managed to do this despite
new "regulations" introduced by the Department of Education
around this time - applying to multi-denominational and all-Irish
schools, but not to denominational schools - which made the going
more difficult in some ways than it had been for Dalkey, Bray
and North Dublin and created a situation which was arguably in
breach of the Constitution of Ireland. The new regulations (not
included in any rule book or circular but cited in letters from
the Department to the new Projects) stated that multi-denominational
national schools, if recognised, would have temporary or provisional
recognition only in the early years (an unspecified period) and
during this period the schools would not be eligible for any capital
grants. This meant that at the stage when the school would be
growing most rapidly and would have to spend money on refurbishing
and furnishing temporary premises, no capital grants would be
available.
Around
the same time, the falling birth figures in the Republic had begun
to affect overall enrolments in national schools and it was becoming
clear that in the coming decade there would be surplus accommodation
in national schools throughout the country. In this scenario,
the government seemed to be reluctant to recognise further national
schools - even though those which existed were under denominational
control and could be deemed to be "in violation.... of the
conscientious and lawful preference" of the parents who wanted
multi-denominational schools for their children.
The
Senate Debate 30 October 1986
Sligo
was the first Project which had to face the additional obstacles
which had been placed in the way of new multi-denominational schools.
A request for sanction to open a school in a disused glass factory
in the town (which was available for rent) was turned down by
the Department on the grounds that there were empty classrooms
in a Catholic school - St. Anne's. The same excuse was used to
refuse permission to the Sligo School Project to erect prefabricated
classrooms on a site which the Vocational Education Committee
was prepared to make available. On 30th October 1986, Senator
Michael D. Higgins raised the Sligo case in the Seanad and a reply
by the Minister for Education, Patrick Cooney, was interesting
in a number of respects. He attempted to justify the new regulation
whereby temporary recognition only would be given to a new multi-denomiational
schools and no capital grants would be available with the following
words:
This
was an extraordinary statement given the many educational initiatives
that had been introduced by the Department of Education during
the previous 20 years. Was Minister Cooney seriously suggesting
that Comprehensive or Community schools should not have been financially
aided by the Department, not to mention Regional Technical Colleges
or the N.I.H.Es in Dublin or Limerick? Should the Department never
support educational innovation? And why make this statement when
the three previous multi-denominational schools had not only proved
their viability but were by now already over-subscribed and unable
to meet the demand for places? His justification for provisional
recognition lacked credibility but unfortunately he held all the
power and there was nothing either the Sligo School Project or
Educate Together could do to change the situation.
When
Senator Higgins pointed out that the Project's efforts to lease
empty classrooms from the Catholic Trustees of St. Anne's National
School had failed and that the Church was not prepared to negotiate
with them Minister Cooney replied:
Despite
the fact that the State contributes on average 85% of the building
costs of a national school it was now becoming clear that the
official tripartite lease of a national school building to which
the Minister for Education was a party gave only limited powers
to the Minister. Effectively he had the power to require the Trustees
to repay the unexpired value of the grant if the building ceased
to be used for national school purposes during the 99 year period
of the lease and he could prevent the building from being sold
during the period of the lease by refusing to relinquish his interest
in the lease. But that appeared to be the limit of the Minister's
control over the use of national school buildings, financed primarily
from the public purse. (In practice neither Minister Conney nor
any subsequent Minister ever intervened to prevent the sale of
a national school building which was sought by a multi-denominational
school). The longer-term significance of Minister Cooney's statement
for the growth of the Educate Together did not become apparent
until later.
Mary
O'Rourke, T.D., Minister for Education, 1987 - 1991.
While
most Ministers for Education since 1977 supported the principle
of multi-denominational education, the appointment of Mary O'Rourke
as Minister in spring 1987 was an important landmark in the growth
of the sector. During her Ministry from 1987 to the end of 1991,
seven new Educate Together schools were set up. On many occasions
during that period Minister O'Rourke spoke in support of the sector
and she visited all ten schools during her period as Minister.
She also launched the Educate Together Charter in Galway in 1990.
Apart
from her support of individual schools, Minister O'Rourke made
an important policy-decision in 1980 when she announced that children
attending multi-denominational schools were entitled to the same
school transport benefits as children attending denominational
schools. This was a very significant breakthrough and has meant
that many children living outside a two or three mile radius but
within travelling distance of a multi-denominational school have
been allowed since 1980 to avail of subsidised school transport
to travel to and from school.
Sligo
School Project, 1987
The
first indication that Mary O'Rourke's Ministry would provide a
breakthrough came in Spring 1987 when the Sligo School Project,
which had been negotiating with the Department of Education for
over two years for sanction to open a school, were told by Mary
O'Rourke that they could go ahead and open in September 1987.
Minister O'Rourke intervened directly on behalf of the Sligo School
Project to get agreement from the Board of Works to lease to the
Project prefabricated buildings at the back of the old Model School
in Sligo. Sligo was the first Educate Together school outside
the greater Dublin area and early projections had seemed to indicate
that demand might result in a four or six teacher school. In the
event, demand in Sligo has been much greater than anticipated
and at the time of writing the school has more than 260 pupils
on rolls and employs 8 teachers. Like the other schools, it quickly
outgrew its temporary premises and further prefabs have had to
be provided on the Model school site.
The
longer-term accommodation situation in Sligo is however unclear.
In 1990 the Project was optimistic that the old Model school building
itself would be renovated and extended to provide a permanent
home for the school. Unfortunately this plan did not go ahead
but instead it was decided that the building would be transferred
to the Sligo Town Council and would be renovated to become a Heritage
Centre. As part of this deal it was agreed that the Town Council
would make a site available to the Sligo School Project for a
new building. This has not yet happened despite ongoing pressure
from the Sligo School Project who are now uncomfortably crowded
in their temporary premises. Moreover, St. Anne's National School
- referred to in the Senate debate in 1986 as having six empty
classrooms - is now completely empty a couple of hundred yards
away from the pre-fabs in which over 200 pupils are accommodated
in the Sligo School Project.
Cork,
1987
In
September 1987, Kilkenny and Cork School Projects also opened
in temporary premises. In the case of Cork, the Presbyterian Church
agreed to lease to the Project a hall behind their Church on North
William St. - a building which would accommodate a two teacher
school. Like the other schools, the Cork school grew rapidly,
and three pre-fabricated classrooms were erected at the back of
the Church on a very limited site. Since 1991 a further two teachers
and their pupils have been accommodated in a building belonging
to the Cork Vocational Educational Committee. This building which
has no playground is situated a few hundred years from the main
school along a busy and dangerous road and children and teachers
have to walk to and from the main school up to six times a day.
However,
a recent development, negotiated during the Ministry of Mary O'Rourke,
augurs well for the future of the Cork School Project. An empty
Catholic national school in the centre of Cork - St. Francis'
N.S. - has been bought back by the Dept. of Education from the
Cork Diocese. It is hoped in the near future that the Dept. will
transfer this premises to the Cork School Project which will pay
the equivalent of the cost of the site and of the local contribution
paid by the Catholic Church during the period when the building
was a Catholic national school. The building also needs to be
renovated and the Cork School Project expects to get the usual
grant from the Department for this work. The school had initially
hoped that the transfer and the work would be completed in time
for the 1993/4 school year but it now seems unlikely that this
deadline will be met.
Kilkenny,
1987
The
Kilkenny School Project N.S. also opened in September 1987 - in
a newly built complex owned by the Scouts and Guides on the Bennettsbridge
Rd. Like its predecessors, the Kilkenny School quickly outgrew
its accommodation and a number of pre-fabs were erected on the
grounds around the main building. (There are now 260 pupils and
8 teachers in the school). The population in the Kilkenny area
is not experiencing the same decrease as other areas of the country
and there are no empty school buildings in Kilkenny. Consequently,
permission has recently been given by the Minister for State at
the Department of Education, Liam Aylward, T.D., to the Kilkenny
School Project to purchase a site for a new building. They are
currently negotiating to buy a site and hopefully their accommodation
problems will be solved in the relatively near future.
Ranelagh,
1988
The
recognition of the Ranelagh Multi-Denominational National School
came about in quite a different way to the other schools in the
sector. For almost a century the Church of Ireland had run St.
Columba's National School on Ranelagh Rd. In the 1980s the school
was a two-teacher school with about 50 pupils - only a handful
of whom were members of the local Church of Ireland parish. There
is another national school (Sandford N.S.) under Church of Ireland
patronage in the same parish and early in 1988 the Church of Ireland
authorities indicated that it had decided to close St. Columba's
N.S. as from the end of the school year 1991. The parents in the
school were not happy with this decision and they appealed both
to the Church authorities and the Minister for Education not to
close the school. The Minister encouraged the parents to contact
Educate Together and to try to merge with the South City School
Project which had been formed some time earlier (see later paragraph).
Efforts to get agreement on a merger failed and in June 1988 the
Ranelagh Multi-Denominational School Association was formed with
a view to taking over the patronage of the school from the Church
of Ireland. The Church of Ireland was supportive and agreed to
transfer its title to the site and buildings to the new Association.
Prolonged
negotiations with the Department of Education followed and in
December 1989 provisional recognition was granted to the school,
backdated to September 1988. The school has continued to develop
since then. There are now five teachers in the school and the
Association's policy is to continue a phased growth until it becomes
an 8-teacher school in 1997. The premises in which the school
is accommodated comprise an old schoolhouse and church (part of
which is currently leased to the Greek Orthodox Church but which
will revert shortly to the Ranelagh Multi-denominational school
association) and some pre-fabricated classrooms. The site is not
extensive but with creative planning, it will be adequate for
a new school building with 8 classrooms and ancillary accommodation.
The
Department of Education has not yet sanctioned a new building
and for the past few years has indicated that it would favour
the use of empty school buildings in the general vicinity. However
there is no obvious empty school accommodation in this area which
is an old established residential area relatively near the city
centre and which in recent years has become a popular area for
newly married couples. It is difficult to see what the alternative
would be to demolishing the existing buildings and building a
new school on the site and this is the solution favoured by the
school and for which they are anxious to obtain Departmental sanction.
Limerick,
1989
In
July 1986 a group of parents in the Limerick area wrote to Educate
Together indicating that they were interested in setting up a
multi-denominational school. During the following three years
they built up their membership and pre-enrolment list and organised
a number of successful fund-raising events. Their great difficulty
was finding suitable accommodation. They had planned to open in
1988 but a number of premises which they tried to secure fell
through. Late in 1988 they got agreement from the Red Cross in
Limerick that they could lease part of their premises in Cecil
St. in the centre of the city - a premises which was undergoing
major revovation through a FAS scheme. (The building had originally
been a Meeting Hall of the Society of Friends and one room was
still set aside for Quaker meetings). In September 1989 the school
opened with 56 pupils and two teachers and six weeks later it
was declared officially open by Minister O'Rourke. The school
grew rapidly, doubling in size the following year and growing
to a five teacher school in 1991. By this stage it could no longer
be accommodated in the Red Cross Hall and as a result of the direct
intervention of the Minister an empty Employment Exchange Building
in Upper Cecil St. was made available in 1991 for additional classrooms.
While the immediate accommodation problems of the Limerick School
Project have been resolved, their situation is far from ideal.
They have no playground space and both of the buildings in which
they have temporary accommodation have many drawbacks. However,
the old Employment Exchange is a big old building and will provide
the school with sufficient space for a few years more.
Like
other Educate Together schools, the longer term accommodation
problem is unresolved. Limerick City has seen a significant fall
in its child population in the past few years and it is projected
that there will be empty classrooms and/or schools in the area
during the coming decade. However, to date the Catholic diocese
has shown no interest in making such space available to the Limerick
School Project and getting a suitable permanent school building
is likely to be an uphill struggle.
South
City School Project, 1990.
The
existence of the South City School Project has been referred to
in the section on Ranelagh Multi-Denominational School. This Project
was formally constituted in July 1987 and became an Associate
member of Educate Together shortly afterwards. It was clear from
the start that there would be no difficulty in attracting pupils
for a viable school in the Dublin South City area and the South
City School Project was willing to consider accommodation in any
area of the south city - ranging from Milltown through Rathgar,
Rathmines, Ranelagh, Terenure, to Harolds' Cross, Crumlin etc.
The suggestion by the Minister in 1988 that the Ranelagh parents
seek to amalgamate with the South City group seemed on the face
of it to be reasonable suggestion. However, the decision not to
amalgamate proved to be a sensible one, as within a very short
time Ranelagh was unable to accept all those who sought places
and when South City School Project eventually set up its school
in Crumlin in 1990 it found that there was more than adequate
demand for places.
South
City School Project carried out a systematic search for premises
for over three years after it was set up in 1987. At the suggestion
of the Department it sought to lease empty classrooms in both
primary and post-primary schools in the south city area. More
than 30 schools were contacted - it had been establsihed that
many of these had some empty space - but not one of them was willing
to lease their empty classrooms. Most of them did not reply to
a letter requesting them to do so. Those who replied explained
their inability to provide accommodation in a number of ways.
One said: "The Board regrets that it cannot provide accommodation
for you in the vacant classrooms as these are let to outside groups
which have been using them for several years". Another reply
was similar: "I am sorry we cannot accommodate you as the
classrooms are already let". Another stated "We regret
we have no space available at present or for the foreseeable future".
A fourth was more specific: "As the Patronage of (our) school
differs from that of the School Project and as running a building
under two Patrons would not be a practical proposition, the Board
of Management does not consider feasible the use of the building
by your group". It all sounded uncomfortably like the refusal
2,000 years earlier: "Sorry but we have no room in the Inn"!
Perhaps
the most disappointing refusal was in relation to an empty national
school building in Milltown. This building was a relatively new
building with about 8 classrooms- about 30 years old - and was
vested in the St. Lawrence O'Toole Diocesan Trust (which holds
all property owned by the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin). By
the end of 1988 the Milltown School was no longer used as a national
school because of falling numbers in the area and it was advertised
for sale through an estate agent in 1987. Despite letters to the
Department, the estate agent and the Solicitors for the Diocesan
Trust indicating that they were interested in acquiring or leasing
the building, South City School Project was not successful in
preventing the private sale of the premises in February 1988.
Following
the decision not to merge with Ranelagh in summer 1988, South
City School Project found it difficult to convince the Department
that another school in the south city area would be viable. However,
they had now focussed their search for accommodation in the Crumlin
area - a less advantaged area than Ranelagh - and during the lead
up to the General Election in 1989, they campaigned vigorously
for a multi-denominational school in this area. By early 1990
they had located a Church of Ireland school on St Mary's Rd. in
Crumlin - a five roomed building of which only one room was being
used by the single-teacher Church of Ireland School. The local
Select Vestry agreed to rent two classrooms to the South City
Project and in September 1990 South City School Project National
School opened with two teachers and about 50 pupils. In 1991 a
further teacher was added to the staff and a fourth teacher was
appointed in 1992.
The
school has now filled all the available space in the building
and there is great concern about the longer-term situation. It
is ironic that in an area where there are very many empty classrooms
and even large empty buildings under Catholic patronage, it fell
to the Church of Ireland to come to the rescue and provide accommodation
in which a multi-denominational school could start in Crumlin.
North
Bay School Project, 1990.
In
August 1988 a group of parents in the North Dublin area, some
of whom had failed to get a place for their children in the North
Dublin National School Project, constituted themselves as the
North Bay National School Project and applied to become an Associate
member of Educate Together. Like so many groups before them, their
major task was to find a suitable premises in which to start and
for the first 18 months the situation looked bleak. Early in 1990
however, they became aware that a large 16 classroom national
school building in Kilbarrack was no longer being used by the
Catholic authorities as a national school and it was rumoured
that it had been acquired by the Department of Education. Some
of the classrooms were currently being used by an Irish language
school and a special school under the Patronage of St. Michael's
House. Again it was through direct contact with the Minister,
Mary O'Rourke, that these rumours were confirmed and the Project
spent the next few months trying to convince the Minister that
a block of classrooms in this building should be leased for a
multi-denomintaional school. It was August 1990 before the Department
agreed to this request but in spite of fact that the new school
year was to start a few weeks later, the Project decided to forge
ahead and open in September 1990. Predictably the numbers enrolled
were small - only about 20 pupils - and the school opened with
one teacher who bravely took on the task of teaching a range of
children from junior infants to fourth class. In 1991 enrolment
had grown sufficiently to appoint two further teachers and a fourth
teacher was appointed in September 1992.
The
building in which North Bay operates is a spacious modern purpose-built
school. There are 8 classrooms in the block in which the school
is accommodated and it is expected that an additional four classrooms
will be made available as required. The accommodation situation
of the North Bay School Project is the most satisfactory of all
Educate Together schools to date. If this solution could be replicated
in other areas, the sector would grow much more rapidly and multi-denominational
education would be accessible to families who seek such education.
The
Current Situation of New Groups
There
are four further associate members of Educate Together - projects
which have not yet succeeded in finding premises in which to open
a school. These are Galway, North Kildare (Celbridge), Dingle
and Terenure. The first three have been active now for three or
four years. Galway has become particularly frustrated in its search
for suitable premises. In 1991 and 1992 the situation looked hopeful
- they had identified accommodation in which they hoped to open
a school. But each time, problems arose in relation to the suitability
or the availability of the premises and the current situation
is not encouraging. A request to the former bishop of Galway,
Dr. Casey, who was Patron of all Catholic national schools in
the diocese asking if some the empty classrooms in the city might
be leased by the Project was refused outright. There is no shortage
of potential pupils for a multi-denominational school in Galway
and there appear to be empty classrooms in some denominational
schools but so far there has been no breakthrough in getting access
to them. Neither are there any other premises currently available
in which a school could start. It is very difficult for parents
to remain optimistic when school year follows school year and
there is no sign of a school.
The
situation in North Kildare would appear to be more hopeful. There
is a lot of new housing in the area with a young and growing population.
Not only is there no surplus school accommodation there but it
appears that there may be need for further national school places
to accommodate all the young children. Up until recently, the
North Kildare School Project had hoped that the Department would
sanction the use of an old Methodist Hall now owned by the Department
of Defence as a temporary school. Although limited in size - it
could accommodate a two teacher school with perhaps a further
two prefabricated classrooms - it would enable a school to get
started and would provide adequate accommodation for at least
three years. At the time of writing, the situation is unclear
but it seems that the Department is not enthusiastic about this
solution and would prefer to see the Project negotiating for a
green-field site on which prefabs could be sited in the short
term.
A
school in Dingle is likely to be a smaller school and is also
likely to be an all-Irish school. The Dingle group was very active
in 1990 and 1991 and had identified possible premises in which
to start a school. These premises proved not to be available and
for the moment no further option has been identified.
Terenure
School Project is less than a year old. It has become an Associate
member of Educate Together within the past few months. Already
its pre-enrolment list has begun to build up and there could well
be demand for a further multi-denominational school in the greater
south city area. However, the experience of South City School
Project in seeking suitable premises for a school in the area
does not suggest that finding a place to start a school will be
easy. On the other hand, new solutions could emerge at any time
and it makes sense for a new group to monitor the local accommodation
situation closely.
Summary
and Analysis of Individual School Developments to date
All
of the ten multi-denominational schools which exist in the Republic
had difficulties in finding suitable accommodation in which to
start. Apart from the North Bay School Project (Dublin) which
has leased classrooms in a modern purpose-built school from the
Department of Education, the other schools started in less than
satisfactory temporary premises, ranging from private housing
to Scout halls to pre-fabricated buildings. It is significant
to note that in a number of cases the Protestant churches provided
accommodation. This was the case in Dalkey - which leased rooms
from both the Church of Ireland and the Presbyterian churches;
in Cork, which has leased accommodation from the Presbyterian
Church; and in Ranelagh and Dublin South City which are housed
in old school buildings which belonged to the Church of Ireland.
The Vocational Education Committees in a number of areas were
also supportive - Dalkey rented classrooms from Dun Laoghaire
V.E.C. Bray's temporary classrooms were located on a site belonging
to Bray V.E.C. Cork is currently renting two classrooms from the
City of Cork V.E.C. Accommodation owned by the State has also
been made available to some schools on a temporary basis. North
Dublin and Sligo are both accommodated on the site of former Model
schools and Limerick's most recent classrooms are accommodated
in an old Labour Exchange building.
Unfortunately,
to date, no school has succeeded in gaining access to acccommodation
owned by the Catholic Church, despite efforts by almost all of
the schools to do so. In many areas, there are empty classrooms
and even school buildings belonging to the Catholic Church but
to date none of the Diocesan Trusts has been willing to lease
or sell these buildings to Educate Together schools. Some Projects
were also refused access to other buildings in which the Catholic
Church had an interest, e.g. Sports Centres, Youth Centres etc.
Given that so much property which has planning permission for
public use in the Republic is owned by the Catholic Church, the
unwillingness of the Church to accommodate Educate Together schools
is a great deterrent to progress.
Educate
Together schools have had a great deal of support from individual
Ministers for Education, but on the rare occasion when a Minister
was less than sympathetic, it was more difficult for Educate Togeher
schools to make progress. There has been a lack of a clearly-defined
official policy in regard to multi-denominational education and
this is an issue which must be addressed in the coming White Paper
and in the proposed legislation.
Role
of Educate Together to Date:
Educate
Together has played an important role to date in co-ordinating
the existing schools and supporting new groups which want to start
a multi-denominational school. Its aims are
(a)
to ensure liaison between the existing School Projects
(b)
to represent, where appropriate, the interests of the multi-denominational
sector within the National School system
(c)
to co-ordinate public relations activities at non-local level
(d)
to co-ordinate fund-raising activities at non-local level.
Although
its funds have been limited, it has undertaken a number of important
initiatives in addition to the routine work of co-ordinating and
supporting Projects throughout the country, These intitiatives
include:
-
An annual Educate Together Day for members, parents, teachers
and friends.
-
Summer courses for teachers; two such courses were organised,
each lasting a week, in 1988 and 1989. The purpose of these
courses was to share experiences in the development and implementation
of the Religious Education Core Curriculum. A set of guidelines
for teachers on the Religious Education Core Curriculum was
produced as a result of these courses and have proved very useful,
particularly for new and substitute teachers.
-
A residential weekend workshop for Principal teachers was held
in November 1992.
-
Training Workshops for Boards of Management were held in 1991.
An Information Pack for Board members was prepared and issued
to all schools at that time.
-
Submissions were made on behalf of the sector to the O.E.C.D.
Review of National Education Policy in Ireland (1991); the Primary
Curriculum Review Body (1991); the Primary Education Review
Body (1991). A preliminary response to the Green Paper was made
in July 1992 and a more complete response was submitted in November
1992.
-
An Information Pack on Starting an Educate Together School was
prepared in 1992 and was launched by President Mary Robinson
in January 1993.
-
Regular contact is maintained with parallel organisations in
Northern Ireland (N.I.C.I.E. and A.C.T.) and elsewhere.
-
Meetings are held with the Department of Education and other
bodies (such as the I.N.T.O.) to discuss issues of interest
and concern to the sector.
The
only source of income available to Educate Together during the
first six years of its existence was an annual contribution of
between £25 and £50 each from member Projects. Since
1990, full member organisations have contributed an amount equal
to 50p per pupil enrolled in their school and associate groups
paid £30 each. This has resulted in an annual income of
about £900 in the past two years. A once-off grant of St£1,000
was received in December 1991 from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
towards the cost of producing the Information Pack on Starting
an Educate Together school. During 1992 various grants of around
£2,500 were received towards in-service courses including
the cost of a residential workshop for Principals.
A
Comparison between Educate Together Schools in the Republic and
Integrated Schools in Northern Ireland.
The
multi-denominational schools in the Republic and the integrated
schools in Northern Ireland share many common problems and challenges.
It was no co-incidence that the movements for integrated schools
in the north and for multi-denominational schools in the south
emerged at around the same period in the mid 1970s. The escalating
violence in the north in the early 1970s made many people think
again about traditional structures in society and any initiative
which might contribute to greater understanding and respect across
the traditional divides was worth a try.
When
the Dalkey School Project was set up in 1975, its founders kept
in close contact with the founders of the All Children Together
movement in the north and attended some of the early meetings
in Belfast. Members of All Children Together also attended meetings
in Dalkey. From the start, it was recognised that both groups
had common problems but that there were also differences in the
solutions being considered. The aim of the movement in the north
was to integrate in one school children from Protestant and Catholic
traditions and in order to achieve this a decision was taken by
All Children Together members to maintain a balance in numbers
between Protestant and Catholic pupils and teachers. The Dalkey
School Project and the subsequent Educate Together schools took
a different approach. From the start the term multi-denominational
was defined as "all children having equal rights of access
to the school and children of all social, cultural and religious
backgrounds being equally respected". Educate Together schools
do not ask parents to disclose their religious affiliation (if
any) and therefore no statistical breakdown of children by religion
is available. The Religious Education policy of Educate Together
schools is based on the principle that the ethos of the schools
should reflect the ethos of a society in which there are many
social, cultural and religious strands co-existing in harmony
and mutual respect. Consequently the Religious Education Core
Curriculum is designed to help children to understand the different
traditions of life and thought that they will meet in their environment
- this will include Catholic and Protestant, but it will also
include Jewish, Baha'i, Muslim, Jehovah Witness, Mormon, Mennonite,
humanist, atheistic, etc. Thus, the R.E. Core Curriculum attempts
to be as all-embracing as possible and to ensure that no child
is an outsider whatever his/her tradition or belief.
The
other main difference between the movements in the north and in
the south is the age-level of pupils for which the schools provide.
In the south, it was decided to concentrate on setting up schools
at primary level. This was the level at which there was no option
for parents of different religious backgrounds who wanted to have
their children educated together since all primary schools in
the south were either Catholic or Protestant. At post-primary
level the vocational schools in the south have always been undenominational
and democratically run and since the 1960s and 1970s the newer
community schools were not exclusively confined to one denominational
group, although their management structure gave the right to nominate
a majority of Board members to the local Catholic or the Church
of Ireland Bishop. Although there are some areas of the country
where access to undenominational schooling at post-primary level
is not easy, Educate Together has continued to concentrate on
the primary level and to date all Educate Together schools are
primary (national) schools.
In
Northern Ireland, the original focus was on providing an integrated
second-level school and the first integrated school was All Children
Together's Lagan College which caters for second-level pupils.
The focus has since broadened in the north to encompass both primary
and post-primary schools and the Northern Ireland Council for
Integrated Education supports schools at both levels.
Since
the setting up of N.I.C.I.E. in the late 1980s, Educate Together
has maintained contact with its director and staff and we have
been very pleased to welcome its Director to a number of our functions.
We believe that the link between Educate Together and N.I.C.I.E.
should be strengthened. I can envisage a number of possible joint
initiatives with teachers and parents as well as joint seminars
and workshops.
Lessons
Learned in Setting up Educate Together Schools.
We
make no claim that Educate Together schools are "better"
than other schools in our national school system. What we seek
is that the choice of multi-denominational education should be
available for those parents who want it for their children. Ireland
is one of the few countries of the western world where children
have had no choice but to be segregated by religion during their
primary schooling. Before the Dalkey School Project N.S. was set
up in 1978 there was no recognition that not every child in the
country was either a Catholic or a Protestant or a Jew. The growing
numbers of children of minority religions and of no stated religion
were not catered for by our national schools system, nor was there
any recognition that some parents would prefer not to have their
children segregated by religion.
In
most countries parallel systems of primary education developed
during the past century, i.e. (a) state schools, usually fully
funded by the central or local authority, attended by a cross
section of children and (b) schools under private (usually religious)
management, attended by children of one religious group. In Ireland,
there is no state or local authority primary school, consequently
the only way forward for parents who want multi-denominational
schools is to set them up and manage them themselves.
While
this is a huge undertaking and is far from ideal, in our experience,
it can be an exercise in local democracy with beneficial spin-offs
in spite of difficulties and frustrations. A group of parents
who come together for the first time to consider setting up an
Educate Together school may have little or nothing in common other
than their interest in multi-denominational schooling. They are
likely to come from different religious, cultural, social, ideological,
and political backgrounds and would probably never have met had
the education question not brought them together. Many may have
little or no expereince of meeting anyone outside their own religious
and social circle. Issues arise that one would never consider
in a more homogenous group. For example, the question of meeting
in a pub or of going to the pub after a meeting has to be handled
with tact and delicacy. For people of some religious backgrounds
the pub is effectively out of bounds. The issue of punctuality
can also arise. While punctuality is not uniquely related to religious
background, we found that some traditions interpret time "more
loosely" than others, often causing tension in a group until
this question was faced up to, discussed and some agreement reached.
While these are small examples, they indicate the unexpected areas
where tensions can occur and which can escalate if not addressed.
Deep-rooted cultural/religious prejudice can also emerge. A confident,
well-presented and impressively-articulated presentation by one
member of a group can be interpreted by a person from a different
cultural tradition as being an arrogant and patronising speech
and it may be very difficult to break down old cross-cultural
suspicions.
However,
in our experience, these problems are usually overcome and learning
how to operate and cope with democracy is the next important milestone
for new groups. The first few meetings are usually cosy and mutually
supportive where parents are glad to find support in their quest
for multi-denominational schooling. The next step of formalising
the group can sometimes be more tricky. Usually a "proceduralist"
will emerge who is in his/her element drawing up a constitution
and setting the procedures in place for future action. Many people
find this stage (which is of course necessary) intensely boring
and there is a danger that if this stage is not moved through
quickly, the ultimate purpose of the group will be lost sight
of and good people will drop out.
The
period of consolidation between setting up the group and opening
the school is very important. This is the stage when people with
various strengths and skills will emerge. The challenge for the
group is to harness these strengths in a constructive way and
to forge ahead with the task of starting the school. Often the
most valuable members of the group at this stage are those who
are prepared to challenge the status quo - to question assumptions
about property ownership for example, when premises are being
sought in which to open the school, or to question various educational
philosophies and methodologies. Creative and divergent thinkers
can be invaluable for coming up with fund-raising ideas and a
sense of self-empowerment will often become evident as the group
develops. Ironically, when the school opens, those who have been
most active in breaking through the various barriers which created
difficulties before the school opened, may find it more difficult
to cope with being part of the "status quo" and may
not be particularly effective members of the school's management
struture. Their tendency to question and challenge authority -
which when the school is set up might well be the Principal teacher
and/or staff - can lead to tension and conflict which may not
be at all constructive at the early stage of the school's development.
It is often better for someone who has been a key person in founding
the school to step aside for a while when the school is opened
and give time and space for staff and parents to grow into the
school. However, this is not an easy thing to do.
Virtually
every school Project provided an opportunity for women to come
forward and play a key role in the setting up of the school. Many
of these were women who never thought of themselves as having
the kinds of skills which they proved to have. They emerged as
leaders; as entrepreneurs who spearheaded successful fund-raising
ventures; as public relations and marketing executives, "selling"
the new school and finding potential pupils; as excellent negotiators
with officialdom at both local and central level; as counsellors
and mediators who helped to resolve conflicts as they arose, and
as experts in a whole range of areas which they had never previously
encountered. Most of these women were working full-time in the
home raising their children when they first became involved. Apart
from the skills which they developed on the task, they became
more confident as time went on and in many cases they subsequently
took on paid employment exploiting the skills and expertise that
they had developed during their time with the school Project.
The
Chairpersons of six of the ten schools in the Educate Together
sector are women. Of the 34 Patron's nominees on Boards of Management,
22 (64%) are women. 8 of the ten Principal teachers are women
and in the 5 schools which are large enough to have elected teachers
on the Board, 4 out of 5 of these teachers are women. Overall,
over two-thirds of the members of the Boards of Management of
Educate Together schools are women - which is almost certainly
a higher proportion than average in national schools throughout
the country.
Religious
Education
In
an earlier section I adverted to some of the issues which cause
conflict when adults from different religious and cultural backgrounds
come together for the first time. While conflict is not common
when the schools get underway, it would be disingenuous to suggest
that there are no issues which cause conflict. Predictably the
question of Religious Education can become a focus for difference
which if not sorted out at an early stage can escalate. The Religious
Education policy of Educate Together schools is two pronged -
(a) the Board of Management of each school offers a Religious
Education Core Curriculum, which is taught by the full-time teachers
and (b) the Board of Management of each school facilitates any
group of parents that may wish to provide denominational instruction
for their children. Qualified instructors may be appointed by
such a group by agreement between the Board of Management and
the parents concerned.
The
development and implementation of a Religious Education Core Curriculum
has been a challenging and often exciting process in which parents
and teachers participate. A number of schools have produced written
handbooks or guidelines on their Religious Education Core Curriculum
and Educate Together, through its in-service courses, has provided
an opportuntiy for teachers to share their expertise and experiences
in this area. Educate Together has also produced written guidelines
for teachers which can be useful as a starting point for new schools.
Each
school makes its own arrangements for facilitating denominational
instruction. In some schools, denominational classes are timetabled
within schools hours; in others they are held on the school premises
outside school hours and others have worked out a combination
of timetabling inside and outside school hours. There are a number
of factors which contribute to the different timetabling arrangements
- these include problems of accommodation and of transport. Schools
which are in very cramped accommodation can find it impossible
to find classroom space for a group of children for denominational
instruction within school hours. On the other hand, if children
are relying on inflexible school or public transport to get home,
there may be no option but to timetable denominational instruction
for them within school hours. Even a school which has adequate
accommodation may find it difficult to find space for denominational
instruction for four or five different religious groups. Consequently
it might not be possible to facilitate a group of parents who
would like to provide denominational instruction for their children
in precisely the way the parents would like.
Almost
every school has encountered tension with some parents at some
stage over the question of the timetabling of denominational instruction.
Often the motivation of the school in taking whatever action it
has taken, is misunderstood and an atmosphere of suspicion and
mistrust can develop. In such cases, Educate Together recommends
that the question be brought out into the open and discussed at
a meeting to which all parents are invited. Such meetings have
taken place in almost all our schools at some stage since they
were set up. Some of the meetings have initially been confrontational
with emotional accusations being made. Deep-rooted resentments
about "the other side" sometimes emerge which can be
disconcerting to parents and teachers who had no idea that their
actions were being interpreted in this way. The aim of such meetings
is to come to an agreement which will go as far as possible to
meeting the requests of the parents involved while at the same
time ensuring that a "majority rule' mentality does not develop.
I
have attended many such meetings during the past 15 years in different
schools and I have found that similar issues and concerns emerge
at all of them. The numerically smaller religious groups or parents
who are not affiliated to any religious group are worried that
their children might be marginalised or "swamped" if
the larger groups regularly come together within school hours
for denominational instruction. They fear that their children
will feel outsiders in a school where no child should be an outsider.
The Catholic group, surprisingly, often feels threatened if it
is asked to contribute to a compromise. Catholic parents in the
south are familiar with the tradition of Catholic schools where
arrangements for religious instruction are made on the assumption
that all children are Catholics and often such parents have not
fully faced the implications of sending their children to a multi-denominational
school. In spite of the discomfort a general meeting produces,
it has been my experience that the airing and sharing of views
and attitudes has been beneficial in the long-term for the development
of the school involved. In every case to date, a satisfactory
compromise has been reached. However, schools must be prepared
to reconsider their arrangements from time to time as the external
situation or the parents' wishes change.
What
are The Main Challenges Ahead?
The
difficulty of getting access to suitable accommodation has been
the single greatest deterrent for parents who want to send their
children to multi-denominational schools in this country. All
other member states of the European Community provide publicly
owned buildings for basic education. Ireland is unique in requiring
citizens to provide privately owned accommodation for this purpose.
Of the ten national schools in our sector, only three are in permanent
purpose-built accommodation and only one of these has sufficient
accommodation to meet the demand for places. The other seven are
in various types of temporary premises, ranging from pre-fabs
to buildings such as Scout Halls, Red Cross Halls, etc. which
are shared with other users. These premises are inadequate and
are becoming increasingly overcrowded as demand for places grows.
In addition to the existing schools, there are parent groups around
the country who have demonstrated to the satisfaction of the Dept.
of Education that there is a demand for multi-denominational education
in their area but who have failed to start a school because of
the impossibility of getting access to the accommodation necessary
to start a school.
Although
classrooms and even whole school buildings have become empty because
of the decline in the pupil population, they are not available
for Educate Together schools because they are owned by the Churches
though initially financed mainly from public funds. However, because
there are empty school buildings in certain areas, the Department
will not provide grant aid for new buildings for multi-denominational
schools. Meeting the demand for multi-denominational education
and providing an effective underpinning of the constitutional
rights of parents, requires a solution to the accommodation problem.
In the present demographic situation it makes good sense to use
existing school buildings and Educate Together would like to see
some administrative changes to allow this to happen.
In
its submission to the Minister in the context of forthcoming White
Paper and legislation Educate Together has made a number of proposals
which would facilitate Educate Together schools in getting access
to suitable accommodation in the short term. We would also like
to see the longer-term issue of the conditions under which grants
are made available for school buildings addressed in the legislation.
For example, parents involved in Educate Together schools have
no particular interest in becoming owners and trustees of school
buildings. Surely it should be possible to move towards a situation
where groups like ours would have the option of being housed in
public buildings which would revert to the State if the demand
for multi-denominational education no longer existed in the area?
The
second issue which militates against the development of multi-denominational
education in the south is the practice introduced by Minister
Cooney in 1986 whereby our schools are recognised in a provisional
capacity only in the early years and are ineligible for capital
grants during these crucial and expensive years. In the Green
Paper it is stated that "where the establishment of further
multi-denominational schools represents the wishes of parents,
and where such schools can be justified on the basis of demand,
the Department of Education will facilitate and support the establishment
of such schools on the same terms as those available for the establishment
of denominational schools". Educate Together has called on
the Minister to implement this commitment immediately, to remove
the discriminatory practice of provisional recognition and to
provide capital grants for multi-denominational schools from the
start.
Conclusion:
In
spite of the many difficulties encountered by Educate Together
schools in the past 15 years, it is probably fair to say that
morale among parents, teachers and pupils is high and that there
is a sense of confidence that the current problems wll be overcome.
The presence of President Mary Robinson at the launch of the Educate
Together Information Pack in January was a great boost to the
movement. The willingness of the Gulbenkian Foundation to grant
aid the publication was also very important - while the grant
itself was not very large, it was the first time the work of the
movement was recognised outside the limited circles of Educate
Together and the launch provided an opportunity to distribute
accurate information about Educate Together to a wider audience.
The
debate on the Green Paper has also provided a platform where the
difficulties and problems of Educate Together have been aired
- as well its enthusiasm, commitment and success. In spite of
everything, the story of Educate Together to date has been a success
story. It is a story of change and development from the bottom
up - a story of ordinary people from a variety of different backgrounds
- religious, cultural and social - working together to provide
an educational system where their children can be educated together.
References
1.
D.H. Akenson, The Irish Education
Experiment: the national system of education in Ireland in the
nineteenth century (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1970).
For
a more complete discussion of the historical background to
the setting up of the Dalkey School Project see Aine Hyland,
"The Multi-denominational Experience in the National
School System in Ireland", Irish Educational Studies,
Vol.8, No.1, 1989.
See
also A.M. Frieda McGovern, The Revival of the Multi-denominational
Concept in the Irish National School | 
