North shows us religious apartheid is an epic fail

It’s 30 years since Scottish researchers contrasted the chances of Catholic schoolboys continuing to practise their religion after leaving school, by type of secondary school.

They contrasted three kinds of school: Religious-run schools which buttressed scholars from competing world views; secondly, schools where pupils’ competing cultures and religions were allowed to flourish and religious instruction was not on the curriculum but provided in Church. The third category was similar to the last mentioned, but without any Sunday school attendance.

The school type with the best outcome, from the Church’s perspective, was the second option.