The 'take it or leave it' primary curriculum is a violation of human rights

Apart from the treatment of those who try to ‘opt-out’ of religion, it means that thousands of parents submit their children for sacraments under duress and that many of their teachers must perform a false religiosity

The draft curriculum by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment clearly does not meet this standard, as it fails to provide for an alternative to ‘faith formation’ and foresees the continuation of the ‘integrated curriculum’ whereby religion is allowed to permeate secular subjects, such as science, history. File photo: iStock

Over the past 25 years, Irish society has evolved faster than anyone would have predicted. We can be proud that despite the challenges that remain, we have become a more inclusive and pluralist society.

Nevertheless, we have significant blind spots, one of which is the treatment of the growing number of non/minority religious families in the 95% of our primary schools that have a religious ethos.