asked the Minister for Education if his Department has sanctioned the practice by some community school boards of management of including, on job application forms, a question designed to elicit from applicants (a) whether they are qualified to teach religion, and (b) whether they are prepared, if appointed, to teach religion: and if he will ensure that applicants who do not wish to teach religion will receive equal consideration from interview boards with teachers who are prepared to do so.
Written Answers. - Community Schools Appointments.
16.
The application forms used by boards of management in connection with the filling of posts for teachers on the staffs of community schools are not submitted to my Department for approval. The question of sanction for a practice as referred to by the Deputy has not, accordingly, arisen.
The procedures for the appointment of teachers to a community school require that a selection committee shall draw up a short list from the applications received and interview the candidates on that short list. It shall thereafter place the candidates on the short list in order of merit and shall submit that list to the board of management of the school. The board shall have regard to the order of merit settled by the selection committee.
The Minister for Education is not authorised to direct interview boards as to how to discharge the responsibility assigned to them in relation to the placing of candidates on a short list or placing them in order of merit after interview.