Church moves away from school management roles

A GROWING number of primary schools no longer have Church involvement in their day-to-day running, according to a management body.

This follows a survey in the Irish Catholic newspaper which found that almost three-quarters of priests believe they should not have management responsibilities in schools.

At least 95% of the country’s 3,300 primary schools are of Catholic denomination, under the patronage of the local bishop. But, whereas the local priest was traditionally the chair of the local national school board, more and more lay people have begun taking up the position in the past two decades.