School patronage: The end of the beginning and a long way to go
It was set up by Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn to advise him on how to proceed with the reconfiguration of patronage for the primary school sector. Currently, the Catholic Church controls around 92% of schools.
The Church hierarchy has acknowledged that the new reality of Irish society requires they divest themselves of some of these schools. How many, and which schools, is a serious bone of contention.
Quinn has indicated he thinks up to 50% of schools should be divested by the Church. The bishops believe 10% to be a more appropriate figure. Therein lies a potential battle.
The forum, chaired by Professor John Coolahan, a wise old owl of education, has been hearing from the interested parties. It wrapped up yesterday and Quinn wants a report by November, with a view to making changes next year.
Things got under way on Wednesday. Coolahan set out his stall. “There is now a general acceptance that the current configuration of school patronage, shaped by, and inherited from, very different historical circumstances is no longer appropriate for the composition and needs of Irish society, as we enter the second decade of the 21st century,” he said.
Appealing for cool heads, he said: “The last thing Irish society needs at present is social cleavage and conflict associated with the problems affecting local school provision.”
By the end of business on Thursday, 10 parties had appeared before the forum with another four due yesterday morning. However the main participants are the representatives of the Catholic Church.
The first group before the forum was the National Parents Council. Its representatives said research indicates patronage is no big deal with parents.
The research is interesting when placed beside work conducted by the late Garret FitzGerald. He examined figures for the rise in popularity of civil marriages over the last 15 years. He found the proportion of civil unions rose from 6% in 1996 to 23% in 2007, the latest year for which figures were available. In the state’s cities, the figure for civil unions was between 36% and 40% in 2007.
It might reasonably be extrapolated from these figures that the majority of young parents today are not practicing Catholics. Yet, it appears that they don’t have a major issue with the Church controlling the vast majority of schools.
“Patronage wasn’t the highest things in parents’ minds,” Coolahan observed at the hearing.
The Council for Education of the Irish Episcopal Conference was represented by Bishops Leo O’Reilly and Brendan Kelly and Fr Michael Drumm.
Three times Coolahan questioned the clerics on their commitment to the change being sought.
The clerics emphasised the importance of parents, and that the divesting of patronage should not be forced on any school. Bishop O’Reilly told the forum that they didn’t want “the old accusation of bishops issuing edicts”.
Fr Drumm said there was “no doubt” about their commitment, but that it could only be done in partnership with the state and the public needed more information.
Inevitably, there is also the issue of money. If the Church is to divest itself, then compensation may well be sought for buildings and land if a transfer of ownership is required.
“The idea that this can be cost neutral is a very high aspiration,” Bishop O’Reilly told the Forum.
These opening exchanges place the task of Coolahan and his two colleagues in a stark light.
A majority of parents have no fidelity to the Catholic Church, yet have no major issue with the Church’s continued control of the primary school system.
It may well be that parents approve of their children being schooled under the Catholic ethos, although there is scant evidence of this. Equally, they may see the ethos as largely irrelevant to their children’s education, while another possible factor is natural caution about change.
In any event, the apathy leaves a vacuum, into which the Church can leap. Professor Coolahan’s concern about how pro-actively the Church is ushering in change was instructive. The bishops need only claim to be following the wishes of parents, and parents aren’t that bothered, leaving the bishops well placed to fashion the pace and direction of change.
In such a scenario, the fear is that a Catholic education will end up being perceived as an elite education, at the cost to the common good.
The other major problem in divesting the Church of schools is: who steps into the breach? Patrons such as Educate Together have an excellent reputation, but what of state patronage? In recent years, the VEC has taken up patronage of a few new schools, but it remains unclear how successful this model is in the eyes of parents.
Quinn has been ambitious in his determination and urgency to have primary schools better reflect today’s society. The close of the forum yesterday was the end of the beginning of the new era. There’s a hell of a long way to go.
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