Bruton Set To Battle School Baptism Rules

Alison Bough

Minister for education Richard Bruton will announce his plans to take on the country’s baptism rules that currently give priority admission to Catholic children.

Mr. Bruton says he plans to make significant changes to the school admission process, which will be announced today at a conference organised by Equate, a children and family rights organisation campaigning for greater equality in Ireland’s primary and secondary schools.

Last month the equality group made a presentation to the Joint Committee on Education and Skills, calling for an amendment to S7.3(c) of the Equal Status Act.

Director of the organisation, Michael Barron, commented:

“The Bill includes many welcome new provisions including an end to waiting lists and an end to fees for admission. Schools will now also have to publish their procedures for working with children who want to opt out of religious instruction.

We believe, however that, in line with the views of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, the Department of Education should go further and support schools by providing them with guidelines for children to opt-out of religious classes and access to appropriate alternatives to such classes, in accordance with the needs of children of minority religion and no religion.”

Mr. Barron said that that religious discrimination in school admissions policies must come to an end:

“It is, unfortunately, silent on the critical issue of religious discrimination in the admissions policies of the vast majority of state funded schools. Presently the so-called ‘baptism barrier’ allows 96% of Irish national schools to discriminate against children based on their religion.

This Bill offers an opportunity to amend the law so that schools can no longer discriminate in their admissions policy on the basis of a child’s religion or non-religion. As the law currently stands children can be excluded from their local school based on their religion. These schools are publicly funded. In parts of the country there is no option for parents but to send their children to religious denominational schools as there is no real alternative for them.

The Minister has shown himself to be committed to placing equality as a central focus of education reform and ensuring that all children have access to their local school would be major step in the right direction.”

It is expected that Richard Bruton will today discuss alternatives to the current admissions system including a catchment area approach, a quota system allowing schools to give religious preference to children in limited numbers, or a total ban on schools using religion as a determinant in admissions.

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