Teachers guilty of hypocrisy

Jamie Buchan. Grove Road, Dundee.

Sir, – At a time when Roman Catholic schools are fighting to retain their faith distinction as well as their credibility in an ever-increasingly secular society, it strikes me as more than a little hypocritical that a number of promoted teachers in Roman Catholic primary schools choose not to send their own children to Roman Catholic schools.

Increasingly, these teachers tend to favour non-denominational private schools such as Dundee High.

Whilst I acknowledge that we have a free market economy and that every parent has a right to choose what they consider to be the best education for their offspring, I do think it nothing but hypocrisy that the schools in which these teachers govern are ones they regard good enough for other parents’ children but not good enough for their own.

It all seems akin to a chef who chooses not to eat in his own restaurant.

In the past, I have raised this apparently unpalatable issue with the Catholic hierarchy and in particular Catholic representatives on the local education committee.

Their rather prickly response was along the lines of; “Well, what can we do, we can’t force them”.

Yet, if they had a will to do it, I’m certain they could find a way.

Surely it could be a condition of being appointed and remaining in an influential promoted post that the successful candidate must demonstrate a continued commitment to the faith and to the Catholic state sector.

I know that if I was a parent of a child in a Catholic state school in which the headmaster or depute chose to send their own children to non-catholic schools, I would find their school assembly and parent newsletter endorsements of the Catholic ethos rather hollow.

I should say that I have no grudge to bear against the Catholic church; in fact, I was brought up a Catholic and went to two very decent Catholic schools.

However, these days, especially in light of the actions of a rotten few priests and the barrel of consequent cover-ups, I am less than convinced that any one religion has all the answers.