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.

We are one of those families.

In January 2011, our beloved nine-month-old daughter Ali died of a rare motor-neuron disease. Though we were raised Catholic, religious explanations offered us no comfort and we opted for a Humanist ceremony that focused on her life and the love that surrounded her. 

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This also meant raising our other two children without the notion of an afterlife, a path made significantly more difficult by the Irish education system.

We live in a village, with a single denominational school, and as we wanted our children to learn with their neighbours, we had no choice but to enrol them there. We informed the school of our family history and were told that no alternative to religion could be provided, but that we could take them home, during church visits.

Our children were those kids sitting at the back of the class, feeling self-conscious and isolated. They were surrounded by religious imagery, had unannounced visits from the priest (so we had no option to withdraw) and learned prayers and religious songs by osmosis. 

During 2nd class, our son was told that he wouldn’t be going to heaven by his friend, as he wasn’t getting ‘his communion’. This, the notion of heaven, was the worst of all, as our children learned that their family’s belief system was wrong.

If you are a person with faith — try to imagine the reverse for your child: them being told, in a publicly-funded school, that heaven does not exist and she will never see her dead loved one again. Imagine how brutal and confusing it would be. 

We had no choice but to leave their otherwise wonderful school. We moved them to the nearest Educate Together and so for five years, my wife’s day has been book-ended by two one-hour commutes, in between which she works. 

It is a scandal that our kids cannot simply walk to school with their friends, a school which our taxes help to fund (and recently extend). This ‘take it or leave it curriculum’ is not benign: apart from the treatment of those who try to ‘opt-out’, it means that thousands of parents submit their children for sacraments, under duress and that many of their teachers must perform a false religiosity. 

This harmful farce is played out in front of children and debases a supposedly meaningful ritual.

Last week, the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment reopened its consultation process for the Draft Revised Primary Curriculum Framework. 

Opt-out Rights Ireland, a newly formed group of school leaders, parents, teachers, and academics, has made a detailed submission to the NCCA outlining how the document contravenes the European Convention on Human Rights.

Entitled The Need for Effective Opt-Out from Faith Formation: A Response to the Draft Primary Curriculum Framework, it highlights the obligation on governments, set out by the European Court of Human Rights, to protect students from religious indoctrination, contrary to their or their parents’ wishes, in publicly funded schools. 

The draft curriculum 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.

This, despite the issue being flagged in several Children’s Rights’ Alliance reports and by the UN’s Committee on the Rights of the Child, who asked the Irish Government to "ensure accessible options for children to opt-out of religious classes and access appropriate alternatives to such classes".

The impact of this discrimination can no longer be minimised or ignored, particularly since the collapse of the divestment charade. 

The minister has a legal and moral responsibility to deliver a curriculum that guarantees the rights of all children now. Who owns the schools now or in 10 years’ time should be immaterial. 

To avoid indoctrination, religious schools must either move faith formation outside the school day or provide an ethics course, designed by outside experts, as an alternative. If this require a citizens’ assembly, let’s make this a priority, as very few people have strong opinions on how other people’s children are taught about beliefs.

For decades, the cost of taking a case against the Department of Education has acted as the barrier to parents in accessing these constitutional rights. We now call on the minister and the department to proactively use their resources to defend these rights, through the revised curriculum and to remove the need for such a costly challenge.

• Colm O'Connor is the principal of Cork Educate Together Secondary School and a Board member of Educate Together, but writes here in a personal capacity