A number of Irish primary schools have suspended the Goodness Me, Goodness You! religious education programme which controversially segregates children according to their religious faith.
Goodness Me, Goodness You! is a multi-belief programme for children of all faiths and none. It is taught in Community National Schools (CNSs) and was developed by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA), in collaboration with CNSs.
Eight state-run Community National Schools, in Dublin and Cork, have now taken the decision to suspend the controversial religious programme after consultation with parents.
RTE's education correspondent Emma O Kelly
reports that a ninth school abandoned the
Goodness Me, Goodness You! (GMGY)
programme entirely five years ago after objections from parents.
The NCCA originally advised against separating children based on their religious beliefs and many school principals, teachers, and parents objected to the GMGY proposals. However, the programme went ahead, and children were divided into four faith groups: Catholic, Other Christian, Muslim, and Other/none in the run up to Easter.
The GMGY website states that, during the core programme, children are taught in their class groups - inclusive of all children whatever their religious faith or beliefs,
"For faith-specific lessons, children are grouped according to their faith/belief tradition. The number of groups and the faith/belief targeted in the groups is proactively managed in each school and reflects the composition of faiths/beliefs in the school and the resources available to each school.
The purpose of grouping the children according to their faith/belief traditions is to enable them to engage with the unique aspects of their faith/belief tradition."
Last month, the NCCA published a consultation
report on the proposals for a primary curriculum in Education about Religions and Beliefs (ERB) and Ethics. The consultation received the highest response rate recorded by the NCCA and the report shows significant support for the types of teaching and learning outlined by the proposals.
The NCCA commented that many participants in the consultation welcomed the proposals as a positive step towards fostering greater understanding and respect in an increasingly diverse Irish society,
"The proposals were seen as contributing to the ethical development of children, supporting them to become good decision-makers with a greater understanding of rights, responsibilities and justice.
Other feedback raised a concern that some aspects of ERB and Ethics could be challenging to the ethos of denominational schools.
Furthermore, teachers cited curriculum overload as a significant barrier to additional content being introduced into the current primary school curriculum."
The State agency have stated that they will begin a review of the controversial GMGY programme from September.
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