Primary schools no longer exclude children based on religion, review confirms

The review found that 43% of the 189 Irish primary schools with a minority religious ethos have to date used the act to prioritise a school place for a child of that minority faith. File picture

Ireland’s primary schools are no longer excluding children on the grounds of religion, a review of a law enacted seven years ago aimed at ending the practice has claimed.

Meanwhile, the same amendment enacted in 2018 has led to nearly 3% of Irish primary schools allocating places to children of a minority religion seeking education in institutions of their faith, the new report said.

The review of Section 11 of the Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018, carried out by the Department of Education last October, found the relevant amendment to the 1998 Education Act has “achieved” its policy aims “in removing religion as a criterion for school admissions”, and in doing so had created “a more equitable and fairer admission process for all applicants of religion and none”.

The review found further that 43% of the 189 Irish primary schools with a minority religious ethos have to date used the act to prioritise a school place for a child of that minority faith.

The amendment had put in place specific provisions directed at ensuring access to education for children of minority faith. However, just 129 schools have placed those specific provisions within their own admissions policy.

Some 35% of the State’s minority religion schools are officially marked as ‘oversubscribed’, meaning that children of a minority faith would be given priority in terms of admission.

The department said that 2,682 such pupils had been prioritised in that manner over the five-year review period.

The review was carried out by a survey of the roughly 3,100 primary institutions in the State, a process the department said had met with “a high level of engagement” with close to a 100% response rate.

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“The data provided by schools indicate that no primary school has used religion as a selection criterion in deciding on offers of admission during the five-year period of review,” the report stated.

It added that no primary school has reported refusing to admit a student on the grounds of maintaining the religious ethos of the institution since the education amendment was enacted in 2018.

The introduction of the 2018 amendment followed a campaign by equality-in-education advocates regarding the perceived unfairness of prioritising baptised children for school places despite the sharp rise in the number of Irish families which did not practice a religion in the preceding years.

Catholic primary schools represent roughly 90% of Ireland’s primary institutions. However, since the introduction of the 2018 amendment, it has been illegal to use religion as a qualifying factor for access to all such schools. The amendment applies to primary level only.