Often-thorny school issues will be outside minister’s control

While the eventual divesting of Catholic schools in some urban areas should better reflect a diversifying population in many areas, there is little scope to provide school types to match the faith demographics of every community.

This is particularly so in rural Ireland, where local parish schools are usually the only choice for parents unless they choose — and can afford — to have their children travel longer distances to class.

But the exercise being undertaken by Education Minister Ruairi Quinn, with mixed support from the Catholic bishops, should eventually see some greater choice of provision for parents in urban areas where new schools are not being built to meet population growth.

It will take at least another two years before some Catholic schools are handed over, after the survey results are digested and decisions are made on which schools if any are to be divested.

The issue will require arrangements for transferring pupils to other Catholic schools, whether staffs need to be amalgamated or teachers redeployed, and the possibility of building extensions in Catholic schools not being divested.

The impetus given to the project by Mr Quinn should not be understated, given that calls from the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation and others to address some of the wider patronage issues had fallen on mostly deaf political ears for a decade.

A key question is also that of enrolment and how pupils are prioritised in the minority of schools where more families are seeking entry for their children than physical space and other resources allow. This may partially be dealt with by legal regulations on school admissions promised in the coming months by Mr Quinn.

While the divesting of Catholic schools will resolve important issues for families in some areas, other questions dealt with by the Forum on Patronage and Pluralism in the Primary Sector require more teasing out.

Often-thorny issues such as how schools treat non-Catholic children during sacramental preparation, the use of class time for Catholic prayer and display of religious symbols were the subject of recommendations by the forum’s advisory group chaired by Professor John Coolahan in June.

But the impact of, and action on, suggestions around these and other matters will be outside the minister’s control, and largely down to hundreds of school communities around the country.