Call for equal funds for religious schools

RELIGIOUS-run secondary schools receive up to €100,000 less than those operated by the State, a conference heard yesterday.

Paul Meany, president of the Joint Managerial Body (JMB), called on Education Minister Mary Hanafin to urgently restore equal funding to that given to community schools and community colleges. The JMB represents voluntary secondary schools operated by religious orders.

Mr Meany told the organisation’s annual conference in Killarney that the act of faith taken by the majority of religious schools to enter the free education system in 1967 is being sorely tested.

“The funding they receive lags behind that available in the State system of community schools and community colleges to the order of €240 a pupil per year, which amounts to €100,000 in a school of 415 pupils,” Mr Meany said.

“Our schools in the free education scheme do not want any more than anyone else but we certainly can not be expected to do with anything less,” he said.

Mr Meany also raised the increased workload faced by principals and said the administration of schools will collapse unless significant and quick steps are taken to give them greater support.

A JMB survey to be presented to Ms Hanafin tomorrow has found that more than one-third of secondary principals work more than 60 hours a week and almost the same number take no lunch breaks.

“Those super-human beings who take up the role of principal are expected to effectively and cheerfully carry out roles of chief executive, spiritual guru, manager, legal advisor and instructional leader, all at the same time but this is just not possible any more,” said Mr Meany, principal of Marian College in Dublin 4.

The report recommends extra funding to appointment administrative assistants, more deputy principals and secretarial staff, and project managers for school building projects. The number of religious secondary schools has fallen from 472 to 380 in 15 years, mainly due to closures and amalgamations.

“For all the faults, the Catholic Church and the congregations that provided Irish secondary education, are owed a huge debt of gratitude by Irish people for a value-driven, high-standard, culture-centred education,” said Mr Meany.