Time for education minister to have faith in his ideals

AFTER long debate but little action, this academic year parents will be given a choice to change the patron, and by extension the culture, of their child’s school.

Of over 3,300 primary schools, 44 will be surveyed to ask parents if they wish to change the patron of the school their child attends. The questions to be asked are still a work in progress; the net issue is will parents wish to continue having the local Catholic bishop as patron, or will they opt for change. This change process, still to be defined, is arguably one of the most important departures in Irish education since 1922.

The debate in recent years has been about the choice, and the lack of it, parents have for their child’s education. An almost monocultural, almost always Catholic community, has rapidly given way to a much more diverse and likely permanently changed society.