Folgero v Norway 29th June 2007 at the European Court of Human Rights is one of the leading cases with regard to education and human rights. It has a particular significance in Ireland because the majority of schools here operate a religious integrated curriculum. Norwegian schools operated under what they called a Christian object clause. It was the practicable application of this clause on the ground which the European Court ruled breached the human rights of non-religious parents. Continue reading →
This is Atheist Ireland’s submission to the Department of Education’s discussion paper on a regulatory framework for school enrolment, submitted to the Department in October 2011.
Contents
1. Introduction
2. Discrimination and Human Rights
3. The European Convention
4. The Education Act 1998
5. Conclusion
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The following brief history of the Irish Education system was attached to the Constitutional Review Group Report in 1995 and written by Aine Hyland.
“When the National School system was set up in 1831, its main object was to ‘unite in one system children of different creeds’. The National Board was ‘to look with peculiar favour’ on applicants for aid for schools jointly managed by Roman Catholics and Protestants. While many of the schools which were taken into connection with the Board in the early years were jointly managed, the main Christian churches put pressure on the government to allow aid to be given to schools under the management of individual churches. This pressure was so effective that, by the mid-nineteenth century, only 4% of national schools were under mixed management.
In terms of the curriculum, the main principle was that schools should offer ‘combined moral and literary instruction’(3). While the Board would decide the curriculum for moral and literary instruction, the patron of each school would determine the form and content of religious instruction in the schools under his patronage. The Rules for National Schools to the present day set down that ‘no pupil shall receive or be present at any religious instruction of which his parents or guardians do not approve’(4) and also ‘that the periods of formal religious instruction shall be fixed so as to facilitate the withdrawal of [such] pupils’.” Continue reading →
This is a list of the Concluding Observations of the United Nations and Council of Europe on Ireland’s Human Rights Record. These observations mainly deal with education.
UN Human Rights Committee
“22.The Committee notes with concern that the vast majority of Ireland’s primary schools are privately run denominational schools that have adopted a religious integrated curriculum thus depriving many parents and children who so wish to have access to secular primary education. (arts. 2, 18, 24, 26).”
The State party should increase its efforts to ensure that non-denominational primary education is widely available in all regions of the State party, in view of the increasingly diverse and multi-ethnic composition of the population of the State party.”
(Article 2 Freedom from Discrimination, Article 18 Freedom of Conscience, Article 24 The Right of the Child, Article 26 Equality before the Law.) Continue reading →
Prof Gerry Whyte – Religion and Education – the Irish Constitution
“The Constitution addresses the issue of education in two different Articles – Article 42 dealing with education generally and Article 44 dealing with religion. This arrangement is not without significance for the former Article is largely informed by Roman Catholic social teaching while the ideological ancestry of Article 44 lies in nineteenth century liberalism. Thus constitutional policy on education straddles an ideological fault line in the Irish Constitution.
The conflict between these ideologies did not emerge for many years because of the dominant position of the Roman Catholic Church in Irish society.”
http://www.ihrc.ie/publications/list/professor-gerry-whyte-paper-on-religion-and-educat/
This is a summary of the questions and answers part of the meeting last Tuesday between Michael Nugent and Jane Donnelly of Atheist Ireland, and the Department of Education’s Forum on Patronage and Pluralism in the Primary Sector.
We were questioned by the Advisory Group to the Forum, which consists of Chairperson Dr. John Coolahan, Professor Emeritus at NUI Maynooth; Dr. Caroline Hussey, former Registrar and Deputy President, UCD; Fionnuala Kilfeather, former Chief Executive of the National Primary Parents Council; and the Secretary to the Forum, Breda Naughton.
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Yesterday, Tuesday September 6, Michael Nugent and Jane Donnelly of Atheist Ireland attended the Department of Education’s Forum on Patronage and Pluralism in the Primary Sector. We were there to elaborate on, and answer questions about, the written submission that Atheist Ireland previously made to the Forum.
We were questioned by the Advisory Group to the Forum, which consists of Chairperson Dr. John Coolahan, Professor Emeritus at NUI Maynooth; Dr. Caroline Hussey, former Registrar and Deputy President, UCD; Fionnuala Kilfeather, former Chief Executive of the National Primary Parents Council; and the Secretary to the Forum, Breda Naughton.
As we arrived early, we first had refreshments in a pub across the road from the Department called The Confession Box! With our consciences thus cleared, the following are our introductory comments to the Forum session:
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Despite Bishop Murray recognising that the Constitutional Right to opt out of Religious Instruction classses in Catholic schools is not observed in practice there is nothing in this position paper that acknowledges this. Nor is there any suggestions on how the Constitutional Right to opt out of religion might be achieved in practice.
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Atheist Ireland respectfully submits its comments regarding Ireland for consideration by the Human Rights Council under its Universal Periodic Reveiw at its 12th Session on 6th Oct 2011.
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The Education Policy of Atheist Ireland is based on the human right to be educated without being indoctrinated with religion and to be free from proselytism.
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