Schools told to find alternative for pupils opting out of religion
■ No longer acceptable for students to stay in classroom and read, warns department
PUPILS who opt out of religion classes must be offered a meaningful choice under new rules being introduced this year.
Multi-denominational postprimary schools will have to provide an alternative to religion education classes for pupils who don’t want them.
About half of second-level schools – those in community, comprehensive, and education and training board (ETB) sectors – will be directly affected by the Department of Education circular.
Under the changes, expected before the end of the year, pupils opting out of religion will not merely be expected to sit in the classroom and told to get on with something else.
Religion classes provided in schools are distinct from the subject of Religious Education, which pupils may opt to study for the Leaving Cert and Junior Cert exams.
Some children in non-religious families opt out of religion classes but it is not unusual for them to have to remain in the room. In one example that emerged recently, pupils were not permitted to wear earphones to block out the lesson.
But now Education Minister Richard Bruton says that there will have to be “proper timetabling of activity of beneficial work” for children who withdraw from religion classes.
The intention is that “every child who turns up should be treated as individuals whose needs are accommodated and, instead of being seen as someone who is just opting out, the school seeks to accommodate those children in the best way possible.”
Mr Bruton added that the circular would provide for parents to be informed of various religious events that might occur during the year, to enable
them to form a view about whether they wanted their child to participate.
He said it was very clear that “all these schools were multi-denominational, even if there was Catholic governance within them, and we are ensuring with this circular that this is practice as well”.
Schools have defended the practice of requiring pupils to remain in the classroom during religion classes on the grounds that they don’t have enough staff to supervise another activity.
While the new regime may present some challenges in this regard, schools will be obliged to deploy resources to ensure that they cater adequately for such pupils.
Denominational schools, predominantly Catholic, have legal guarantees that allow them to protect their ethos, such as by prioritising admission of pupils of their faith and in terms of religious education.
Multi-denominational schools are open to all-comers, but, because of the way they evolved, the Catholic Church has a governance role in many of them and its ethos may dominate. At one time, that probably largely reflected the religious profile of local communities. However, the big drop in the number of Irish people declaring as Catholic, and an increase in those of other faiths and none, demands a much more inclusive approach.
In a speech last year, Séan Ó Foghlú, secretary general of the Department of Education, predicted a process of ongoing change and said such schools “need to prepare for situations where a majority of students may wish to withdraw and where religious instruction and worship may be required by a minority, if at all”.