‘Fairness more of an issue than patronage’

FAIR treatment by schools of all children, regardless of their beliefs, is more important to parents than who is patron, a forum on pluralism in education will hear this morning.

The National Parents Council-Primary (NPC-P) says transferring the patronage of the only school in a rural area from the Catholic bishop would not increase choice because there would still only be one local school, albeit with a different patron.

The advisory group of the Forum on Patronage and Pluralism in the Primary Sector today begins three days of hearings with groups representing primary patrons, managers, principals, teachers and patrons.