Parents may take legal action over teaching arrangements

PARENTS forced to send their children to schools that conflict with their religious and moral preferences may go to court to seek State funding for alternative teaching arrangements, warns Educate Together.

The charitable organisation, that has set up 35 multi-denominational schools to date, has called on the Department of Education to increase its annual funding from E38,000 to E300,000 to allow it provide sufficient alternatives to denominational education.

Currently, it relies on parental backing and fundraising for 90% of its operating costs. Under Article 42 of the Constitution the State is obliged to "supplement and give reasonable aid to private and corporate educational initiative and other educational facilities with due regard for the rights of parents, especially in the matter of religious formation."