VECs ‘are an inclusive option’

THE country’s vocational education committees (VECs) offer the most cost-effective and inclusive option for communities looking for a different kind of primary school, representatives claimed yesterday.

The sector has already started operating four primary schools in Dublin, Kildare and Meath on a pilot basis as community national schools.

These have a multi-denominational ethos, catering for children of all faiths and none.

The Irish Vocational Education Association told the Forum on Patronage and Pluralism in the Primary Sector that VECs also offer many administrative supports that already exist for their role as operators of second level schools and further education colleges.

Education officer Pat O’Mahony said: “This is the cost-effective approach, there’s no need to build any buildings or move from school A to school B.

“If it’s managed properly, you could have a development over time that would guarantee every single person in the community, regardless of their beliefs or aspirations, an opportunity to be educated under one roof.”

Asked for more detail about a community national school model, Co Dublin VEC outlined how all children at its two pilot schools, which opened in 2009, learn about all religions during a half-hour lesson per day, except for three weeks of the year when children of different faiths are taught material specific to their own religion.

Mr O’Mahony said that if a VEC took over a school from another patron, faith formation such as preparation for Catholic sacraments would be catered to for all groups of pupils where desired.

He said iconography wold find a place in such schools, but items representing all faiths in the school would be displayed.

The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation, which advisory group chairperson Professor John Coolahan acknowledged as the first group to call for such a forum, said fifth and sixth-class pupils should be given a say in any discussions about patronage in their area.

The organisation’s general secretary, Sheila Nunan, said: “If they were perhaps the child who mightn’t have been taking part in the main religious programme, a lot of valuable information could be got out of that.”

She said teachers have evolved practices as classes become more diverse, culturally and otherwise, but said this has to be reflected in pre-service and ongoing training for the profession.

The teachers’ organisation also raised concerns about a stipulation in the 1965 rules governing national schools that each school’s religious spirit must be part of how every subject is taught.

Equality officer Deirdre O’Connor said: “Teachers find it a challenge to cater for the diversity of children in front of them where the denominational spirit of the school has to inform the whole school day.”