Most Irish schools insist that children, whose parents do not want them to attend religious instruction, must sit at the back of the class while religion is being taught. This is unconstitutional. Such children have the right to physically leave the classroom while religion is being taught. The inalienable rights ...
Atheist Ireland sent our recent Legal Opinion on the Constitutional Right to not attend religious instruction under Article 44.2.4 to the General Secretary of the ETBI Paddy Lavelle. The ETBI responded to us on behalf of all ETBs and claimed that the ETBI distinguishes between religious instruction and religious education. ...
The ETBs and the Catholic Bishops claim that they are legally obliged to promote the spiritual education of all students through religious education. They use this as a lobbying tactic with the Department of Education, in order to continue to evangelise, and to ensure that students that opt out of ...
The right to opt out of religion under the Irish Constitution is not confined to opting out of faith formation or any belief specific teaching. The Constitution does not use the words faith formation in relation to the rights of parents to opt out their children (Article 44.2.4). The Education ...
Atheist Ireland has published a major new report titled How State Schools Break The Rules. It explains how the Department of Education, the ETBs, and the NCCA are breaching Constitutional and Human Rights and the IHREC Act in Religious Education in ETB schools. We will be using this report as the ...
ETB schools are wrongly telling students that they cannot opt out of the State religious education course at second level, and are wrongly trying to justify that by referring to a misleading clarification of a directive from the Department of Education. In February last year the Department told ETB schools ...
There is a lot of confusion among parents and students in relation to the different types of religious education and religious instruction classes in Irish school at primary and second level. Here is a quick guide which we hope will give a better understanding of the basic principles in relation ...
In a recent case, the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) found in favour of Tipperary Education and Training Board (ETB), in a case taken by a computer science and maths teacher. The teacher had claimed that he was discriminated against on the ground of religion in the Central Technical Institute in ...
The Equal Participation in Schools Bill 2016 will be debated in the Dail next Tuesday night between 8pm and 10pm. If passed this Bill would ensure that all children and their parents have access to an education system with equal respect and dignity and where their human rights are guaranteed. ...
Publicly funded schools with a Catholic ethos ignore legislation and policy and successive Ministers for Education have done nothing about it. The Irish State refuses to challenge the Catholic Church even when it means they are clearly ignoring this policy and legislation. In Ireland one of the key issues in ...
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