Wearing veils in class ‘to be discouraged’

STUDENTS should be discouraged from wearing veils which cover the face in classes, recommends the Government in uniform guidelines to schools.

However, the question of what can or can not be worn by students has been left open to each of the country’s 4,000 schools under the recommendations being issued by Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe and Integration Minister Conor Lenihan.

They are non-specific in relation to any particular faiths or garments, but the accompanying statement by Mr O’Keeffe did refer to the Muslim hijab headscarf which has been the subject of debate in recent months.

“‘It seems clear that, where schools have permitted the wearing of the hijab in a colour similar to the school uniform, no problems have been encountered,” said Mr O’Keeffe.

The recommendations agreed following consultations with schools, management organisations, parents’ groups and other stakeholders favour the current system where each school decides its own uniform policy.

“In this context, no school uniform policy should act in such a way that it... excludes students of a particular religious background from seeking enrolment or continuing their enrolment in a school,” the ministers recommend.

“However, this statement does not recommend the wearing of clothing in the classroom which obscures a facial view and creates an artificial barrier between pupil and teacher. Such clothing hinders proper communication,” they said.

A group campaigning for recognition of the hijab in schools expressed concern at what it described as the “less-than-favourable” statement regarding the niqab, the piece of cloth which covers the face, which they said will further objectify an already marginalised group.

But Irish Hijab Campaign spokesman Mujaahid Liam Egan welcomed the acknowledgement of the needs of minority groups, although he said more explicit legislation to protect the hijab would have been preferred. His 14-year-old daughter Shekinah, 14, wears a hijab at Gorey Community School in Co Wexford, but the group claims children have been prevented from doing so in other schools in the absence of guidelines.

Their publication was partly prompted by a lack of clarity on the issue, which was raised by Gorey Community School with the Department of Education last year. The National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism said the guidelines offer a sensitive approach to the wearing of clothes associated with religious obligations in schools and will help ensure all children are more likely to be educated together, irrespective of faith or a school’s ethos.

All three teacher unions welcomed the non-prescriptive nature of the guidelines for allowing schools set their own policies. “Irish second-level schools are committed to integration and it is vital that schools are supported in developing policies which promote openness and inclusiveness in their communities,” said John White, of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland.