A stranglehold on education

■ Religious bodies have a triple lock over the primary education system in this country.

Firstly, over 90pc of publicly funded primary schools are under the patronage of religious bodies – an aberration for a Western democracy.

Secondly, they can discriminate against children on religious grounds in their admission policies.

Thirdly, children of non-Catholic parents face the “integrated curriculum” whereby a religious ethos (including prayers, hymns and religious references) can permeate the entire school day for pupils.

This triple lock means that many non-Catholic parents have no option but to subject their children to unwanted indoctrination, in effect nullifying their (theoretical) constitutional right to opt their children out of religious instruction/faith formation.

How would Catholic parents feel if they had no choice than to subject their children to indoctrination in Islam in their local school as part of their “education”?

We are supposed to live in a republic. You might think that the right to a primary education free from unwanted religious indoctrination would be a basic right.

Many people in Ireland cannot avail of that right.

This has been “normal” in Ireland for a long time. But it is not normal, nor is it right.

The times they are a changin’. Around a third of marriages are non-religious, while 20pc of parents with children of school-going age are now non-religious.

If religious practice were a measure, it would be much higher.

Moreover, the successive polls suggest that the majority of people do not support the status quo.

The Irish primary school system must change.

Indoctrination is not education.

Rob Sadlier Rathfarnham, Dublin 16