UN set to probe support for multi-denominational schools
The issue arises from concerns expressed to the UN Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination by Educate Together. There are more than 4,000 pupils in 35 schools under the patronage of Educate Together, an umbrella group for the country’s multi-denominational sector.
This represents less than 1% of the country’s primary pupils, with 98% of the 3,300 primary schools under Catholic management.
Educate Together has said that the Government has not been giving enough resources to allow groups of parents set up such schools for their children.
A UN monitoring committee will meet a Government delegation here next month to discuss the matter.
Educate Together chief executive Paul Rowe said the State’s policies towards primary education are contrary to several articles of the convention, ratified by the Government in 2000.
“It is impossible to completely eradicate racist attitudes in any country without ensuring that primary education is inclusive and respectful of difference and equality,” he said.
The submission claims there has been a failure to develop a network of inclusive primary education at a time of rapid diversification of the Irish population on religious, ethnic, cultural and racial grounds.
This, it is alleged, discriminates against those who do not hold majority faiths.
A Department of Education spokesperson said seven of the 12 schools granted recognition for State funding in the last two years came in the multi-denominational sector.
“The department has dedicated significant resources to the accommodation requirements of multi-denominational schools in recent years. Two new primary schools in that sector have recently been completed in Dublin and three more will go to tender or construction in the next 15 months,” she said.
