Unsupervised religious fee-paying primary schools?

[patslatt]

The Catholic Church and the Church of Ireland have instructed many primary schools to insist on baptismal cetificates for students,according to news reports a few weeks ago. This possibly unchristian act denies access to primary education to taxpaying non-Christian families in what is largely a state tax-funded education system.

The resulting shortage of places can't possibly be met by scarce non-denominational Educate Together schools.So it would be reasonable to expect high growth in informal fee-paying private religious primary schools. They will be primarily Muslim schools as Muslims are the largest non-Christian religious minority, but they could also include Hindi and Buddhist schools.

Presumably, the Department of Education has no say over the curricula of these schools. Some of the Muslim population may choose a purely Koranic religious education for their children,which mostly requires memorisation and chanting of the Koran,similar to the Madrassa schools in Pakistan. Such education has little interest in modernity.

While this form of extreme religious education is strange to the modern mind,it is not all that long ago that Catholic schools unsupervised by state authorities were similar to Madrassas.For example, in Quebec, Canada, the Catholic primary education system taught little else but religion until political reforms brought radical changes in the 1960s.

I wonder what the Department of Education thinks about these schools.

[beardyboy]

The should prioritise pupils of their own faith but if there is room they should accept others

[ibis]

I call tax refund.

[John_C]

...
The resulting shortage of places
...

I think you're mixing up cause and affect here.

[beardyboy]

I call tax refund.

maybe- parents get a tax refund based on how many children are not in the state school - might work

[gliogaire]

Presumably, the Department of Education has no say over the curricula of these schools.

The Constitution gives the Dept. of Ed. overall responsibility for standards in schools which includes the curriculum. They are also responsible for granting recognition to new schools.

Some of the Muslim population may choose a purely Koranic religious education for their children,which mostly requires memorisation and chanting of the Koran,similar to the Madrassa schools in Pakistan. Such education has little interest in modernity.

I would believe that the majority of Muslim people in this country are actually very well educated and appreciate the value of education to their children. I doubt very much they would send them to such places (not that I believe they will be established in the first place).

I wonder what the Department of Education thinks about these schools.

They don't even exist....

[patslatt]

...
The resulting shortage of places
...

I think you're mixing up cause and affect here.

The shortage of places for non-Christian children is created or worsened by the demand for baptismal certificates.

[patslatt]

The should prioritise pupils of their own faith but if there is room they should accept others

If the Catholic and Protestant primary education systems were not largely funded by the state, and were not the only systems available in maybe 90% of the country,you would have a case.

[patslatt]

Presumably, the Department of Education has no say over the curricula of these schools.

The Constitution gives the Dept. of Ed. overall responsibility for standards in schools which includes the curriculum. They are also responsible for granting recognition to new schools.
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If Catholic schools which are all that's available in maybe 90% of the country deny entry to non-Christians, how can the Department of Education prevent
private,informal schools from springing up that don't comply with state standards? I wouldn't put much trust in the Department of Education's ability to regulate informal schools, witness the failure of other government departments to regulate and inspect properly in areas such as nursing homes,water supplies in Galway,effluent from farms etc.

[jady88]

That is disgusting. We should change the constitution to ban religious education and private education and only allow state run schools.