CATHOLIC SCHOOLS BANNED FROM USING ‘BAPTISM BARRIER’
Church-run primary schools question legality of Bruton’s initiative
CATHOLIC primary schools are to be banned from discriminating against non-Catholic children.
The State-funded national schools will no longer be allowed to use religion as grounds for admission under new rules proposed by Minister of Education Richard Bruton.
But schools which belong to minority faiths which are oversubscribed will still be allowed to refuse admission based on religion.
A number of parents, teachers and lobby groups have cautiously welcomed Mr Bruton’s plan to eradicate the socalled ‘Baptism barrier’.
But one group representing Catholic schools questioned whether it was constitutional. Séamus Mulconry, general secretary of the Catholic Primary Schools Management Association, said: ‘I’m not sure constitutionally the minister’s proposals will stand and I’d be very
interested to see the Attorney General’s opinion.’
Mr Bruton told an Oireachtas education committee yesterday that it is his intention to amend the legislation to ban Catholic schools from turning away children for admission based on their religion.
The only schools that will be allowed to use religion as a criterion for entry are minority religion schools such as Church of Ireland, Islamic and Jewish – but only if they are oversubscribed.
There are currently 2,802 Catholic primary schools compared with 191 minority religious schools.
All undersubscribed schools, regardless of ethos, will not be allowed use religion as a criteria for entry. This represents roughly 80% of all schools.
Mr Bruton said: ‘This means that religion will not be used in admissions to 80% of schools, and in fact this is already the practice in most schools (including denominational schools)’.
He added: ‘I am seeking to be fair to all parents while recognising the right of all schools to have their distinctive ethos.
‘The aim is to meet the wishes of non-denominational parents, who now amount to well over 10% of their cohort, without unfairly impinging on the rights of other children.’
The minister said he hoped this proposed amendment to the Equal Status Act would eradicate a pressure that some parents feel to baptise their children purely in order to get them into school.
But the Catholic Primary Schools Management Association raised questions about the how proposals would stand constitutionally. General secretary Mr Mulconry said: ‘We will be studying the minister’s proposals very carefully, particularly given that this is the first time we are aware of legislation that treats different religions differently.’
He also accused the minister of ‘dodging’ the issue as the real problem is ‘a lack of school places’.
He said: ‘The minister really needs to get the finger out now and start providing more school places, because all he has done is change the names of the people who are disappointed. That’s not a solution.’
Under the proposals, schools of a minority religion will still be allowed to refuse the enrolment of children if it would not be possible to maintain the ethos of schools otherwise. Or, where the school is established by a minority religion in a community ‘consistently’ served by that school or to ensure pupils of the same religion can ‘find a place in a school of that ethos’.
A spokesman for the minister could not provide a timeline of work for the proposals but said he planned to ‘progress it as quick as possible’.
In terms of enforcing the proposals if the Bill is passed, the spokesman said there were a ‘range of legal powers available to the minister which compel a school to comply with admissions policy’.
The Baptism barrier has been a highly controversial issue in recent years, with many parents admitting that they had baptised their children to get into a local school. Mr Bruton said he received 1,000 submissions while he worked on the proposals.
A statement from the Department of Education yesterday said that ‘clearly there are complex legal and constitutional issues which will have to be worked out’.
Michael Barron, director of advocacy group Equate, has described the development as ‘a first and crucial step in opening up our education system to all children regardless of their religion or belief’.
Comment – Page 12 emmajane.hade@dailymail.ie
‘That’s not a solution’