Jess Casey: Why are nine out of 10 schools still under the patronage of the Catholic Church?

To meet the Government’s target of 400 multi-denominational schools by 2030, 40 schools a year would have to reconfigure

With almost nine out of 10 primary schools still remaining under the patronage of the Catholic Church, is the process to increase the number of multi-denominational schools here doing enough?Picture: Larry Cummins

Ireland’s demographics have changed.

Fewer of us now identify as Roman Catholic. The proportion of the population identifying as such has fallen from 91% in 1991 to 69% in 2022, according to the latest census.

However, while a small change in the form of a “steady decline” in the enrolments to Catholic primary schools was recorded in recent years, Ireland’s educational landscape in terms of primary school patronage remains largely the same.

With almost nine out of 10 primary schools still remaining under the patronage of the Catholic Church, is the process to increase the number of multi-denominational schools here doing enough?

And against the backdrop of a changed Ireland, why aren’t more schools signing up to switch their patron and their ethos by transferring to a multi-denominational patron?

The current Government is aiming to increase the number of multi-denominational primary schools by at least 400 by 2030, a target highly unlikely to be reached even if current progress is massively accelerated.

Enter the ‘Schools Reconfiguration for Diversity’ process, the latest plan to reboot the divestment of schools.

Launched by the Department of Education last March, this particular pilot project was trialed in schools under the patronage of their local bishop in eight areas that lacked multidenominational education in Arklow, Co Wicklow; Athlone, Co Westmeath; Cork, Dublin, Dundalk, Co Louth; Galway, Limerick, and Youghal, Co Cork.

Independent facilitators were appointed to work with schools, and it aimed to support transfers of Catholic schools to multi-denominational patrons “in response to the wishes of school communities.” The process was fully supported by the Council for Education of the Irish Episcopal Conference, which represents Catholic patrons.

The consultation process wrapped up earlier this year. As a result, two schools, Cornamaddy National School in Athlone and St Enda’s Primary School in Whitefriar Street, Dublin 8, are to transfer from Catholic patronage to the local Education and Training Board, becoming multi-denominational community national schools.

A spokesman for the Department of Education said it is hopeful that there will be a number of other transfers of patronage and change of ethos to multi-denominational in the short term.

Nationally, declines can be seen in enrolments in Catholic primary schools, albeit small numbers, with the latest annual statistical bulletin published by the Department of Education noting a “steady decrease” since 2018.

At the same time, multi-denominational enrolments have continued to rise steadily.

The increases and decreases are likely to be a result of shifting demographics, the closure of small, rural schools, and increased demand for multi-denominational education, according to David Graham, spokesperson for Education Equality.

The group campaigns for secular education, on the basis that children should have equal access to schools regardless of religion, and for an end to what it deems “all religious discrimination in State-funded schools”.

Education Equality believes the Department of Education’s response to this increased demand for multi-denominational education is falling very far behind the curve.

“Essentially, if you live outside of a large town, you've little to no chance of accessing multi-denominational education,” Mr Graham said.

When it comes to the reconfiguration process, Education Equality doesn’t believe the process has any credibility, he said.

“We would say the process has demonstrably failed to deliver change. There’s been an average roughly of one school divested every year.

“To put that into perspective, if the Government were to actually achieve its target of 400 schools by 2030, we would need to be reconfiguring about 40 schools a year now, this year, and every year until 2030.” 

When it comes to the latest pilot project, sources indicate the process it presented to schools was overly complex and vague, and asked parents to make a decision on a new school patron, without having any idea who it could be.

In the Dublin suburb of Raheny, the proposal to transfer one of three schools under the patronage of the Catholic archbishop of Dublin was met with strong opposition during the pilot process, and ultimately, no schools were transferred.

However, parents in the area are still campaigning for a new non-denominational, co-educational secondary school to serve Raheny and Killester, which would indicate an appetite for more non-religious education in the area.

In a recent statement, the Archdiocese of Dublin said the pilot project was “intended to provide opportunity for both Church and State to learn” and to then create, a viable path to secure reconfiguration on a greater scale in a “sensitive, efficient and effective manner”.

Alan Hynes, chief executive of the Catholic Education Partnership, acknowledged that there is an appetite among a growing number of parents for multi-denominational education.

“The Church recognises we need to have a reconfiguration of patronage, that there needs to be a greater choice of schools for parents. That’s why we are working with the department to try and bring it about. It’s a difficult process.” 

There was a lot of learning from the recent pilot process, led by the Department of Education facilitators, he believes.

Fundamentally, the Catholic Church and the State see the parents as the primary educators of children, he said.

“It’s a fundamental part of Catholic thinking on education, and that means that parents have prior rights over church bodies in terms of the education of their children.

“We’re aware this is what parents want. In the past, the dominance of the Catholic ethos schools reflected the makeup of society – that society is changing.

“We’ve no desire to have a large number of people effectively feeling like they have no other choice but to send their children to a school they’d rather not send them to.

"We have to find a process that’s got to work for communities and where they feel they have bought into the decision, where you can build a local consensus. That’s going to take patient work.” 

Simon Lewis, principal of Carlow Educate Together National School, said he believes there is a certain level of nimbyism that comes into the current reconfiguration process.

This is even though the majority of people would prefer more multi-denominational schools, in theory.

"When that’s your own child’s school, I suppose the level of the unknown maybe frightens people off.

“I’m a dad myself and people say to me when I tell them my child comes to the school I’m principal of ‘isn’t is great you have a choice’ but I don’t have a choice, this is the only option.

“Choice implies I have more than one option, more than one place to go and I don’t. I had to fight for three years to get one school in the entire county of Carlow to get a school where my child wouldn’t be sitting in the back of the classroom for portions of the day. He’s just finished second class, and it’s mad I actually feel lucky and grateful that he was able to be in school and was included in the entire year."

Educational charity and patron body Educate Together said it is concerned that the Government’s pilot process has not resulted in substantial changes in school patronage, considering the high levels of demand for alternative forms of education.

It has identified “significant weaknesses” with the current pilot reconfiguration process and shared these with the Department of Education.

“Parents are not given sufficient information, key members of the community are not given the opportunity to engage, and the format used to consult with stakeholders has been ineffective,” a spokeswoman said.

“This process as currently configured can be described as ‘the wrong people asking the wrong people the wrong questions,’ and was always unlikely to result in positive change.” 

It also believes that all parents and the wider community, including preschool parents, as well as parents of primary-age children who currently travel outside the area to access equality-based or multidenominational education, should have a role in deciding what type of schools their community will offer.

A number of schools have reconfigured successfully in recent years. Since 2017, 11 previously religious schools have opted to reconfigure as community national schools under the patronage of Education and Training Boards (ETBs).

Most recently, St Mary’s Boys Junior School in Nenagh, Co Tipperary, reopened last September as a co-educational, multi-denominational community national school, becoming the first multi-denominational school in the entire county of Tipperary.

Under the patronage of the local Tipperary Education and Training Board (ETB) and now known as Nenagh Community National School, the school now follows a multi-belief and values education curriculum called 'Goodness Me, Goodness You, which is used in all community national schools.

“These success stories were brought about when schools, with the permission of their religious patron, asked ETBs to inform the school community about community national schools,” said Dr Séamus Conboy, ETBI director of schools.

“When staff and parents in these schools heard about the ethos of community national schools and the supports available from ETBs to principals and boards of management, they chose to change the school's patronage."

Change of this nature can be a challenge, he added.

“However, we have learnt that when school communities are clear about what the school will become if they decide to change patronage, reconfiguration can be brought about very successfully.

“We look forward to two other religious schools reopening in September as community national schools. We also look forward to working with many more school communities as they consider changing patronage into the future."

A spokesman for the Department of Education confirmed it is continuing to review the reconfiguration process over the summer, which will be published in the autumn. It also plans to publish all facilitator’s reports in due course.

“It is envisaged that it will include a strategy and framework for delivering on the Government commitment for increasing multi-denominational provision.

“The goal remains to establish a strong process, that has the support of patrons and local communities, and which will enable us to continue to increase the number of multi-denominational primary schools across the country.”