Religious Education Archives | Teach Dont Preach

August 5, 2019 No Comments Teach Dont Preach

NCCA Religion Course was always optional

The NCCA Religious Education Course was optional when it was first introduced in 2000. The roll out of the course took 3 years. At the time, no Schools, Teachers, the TUI, Patron Bodies or the Catholic Bishops complained about needing extra resources for a new course that was introduced into ...

July 4, 2019 No Comments Teach Dont Preach

Atheist Ireland calls for ethical secularism at meeting with Taoiseach and Government

Michael Nugent and Jane Donnelly of Atheist Ireland are today calling for an ethical secular State at a meeting of the Dialogue Process between the Taoiseach, the Government, Churches, and Non-confessional Bodies, in Dublin Castle. The meeting is addressing three themes: Effective Structured Dialogue, Inclusive and Diverse Communities, and Education. ...

June 26, 2019 No Comments Teach Dont Preach

Secular Dublin City University is using State resources to research and advance faith development of adults

Dublin City University, a non-denominational secular University, is conducting a three-year research project on Adult Religious Education and Faith Development (AREFD), funded by the Presentation Sisters North East Province, and run through the Mater Dei Centre for Catholic Education at the University. The aim of the project will be to ...

May 15, 2019 No Comments Teach Dont Preach

ETBs and Bishops misrepresent the meaning of the word ‘spiritual’ in the Education Act

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 ...

May 9, 2019 1 Comment Teach Dont Preach

Supreme Court judgement from 1998 supports the right to opt out of the NCCA religion course

The Minister for Education, Joe McHugh, and the Department of Education, have recently been undermining the right to opt out of the NCCA religion course in ETB schools. They are basing their argument on a distinction between what they call ‘religious instruction’ and ‘religious education.’ But Atheist Ireland has obtained ...

April 27, 2019 No Comments Teach Dont Preach

The tangled web of events undermining the right to opt out of religion in ETB schools

In 2000 when the NCCA Religion Education course was introduced in schools, the Department of Education described it as optional. In practice, most schools made it compulsory. This was despite the fact that, of all of the subjects, religion is the only one that you have a constitutional right to ...

March 29, 2019 No Comments Teach Dont Preach

NCCA Religious Education course; Opting out is a Constitutional Right

If you are a non religious parent you have a Constitutional Right to opt your child out of the NCCA Religious Education course in second level schools. If any teacher forces your child into the NCCA Religious Education course complain about their behaviour to the Teaching Council. Don't let schools ...

March 19, 2019 No Comments Teach Dont Preach

The Minister for Education should enforce the right to opt out of the NCCA Religious Education course

Ruth Coppinger TD has twice recently asked the Minister for Education Joe McHugh about the right of students to opt out of the NCCA Religious Education course at second level. The Minister has not directly addressed the right to opt out, saying merely that opting out "should not arise" because ...

January 30, 2019 1 Comment Teach Dont Preach

Catholic ethos schools integrate the myth of Adam and Eve with the science of evolutionary biology

While the Roman Catholic Church is broadly supportive of the Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection, their formal doctrine continues to insist on “human exceptionalism”. That is, the Church requires that some dogmatic qualifications are applied to the science, when it comes to human evolution. The Catholic Church teaches that ...

January 18, 2019 1 Comment Teach Dont Preach

Catholic Church objected to 2016 CNS religion course, and ETBs failed to protect human rights of minorities

Documents that Atheist Ireland obtained under FOI show that private dialogue between the Catholic Church and the ETBI failed to protect the human rights of parents who seek secular education based on human rights law in the new Community National Schools. The ETBs ignored their public service duty to protect ...