The Programme for Government contains a commitment to expand the plurality of our schools to reflect the full breadth of society. Among the commitments are to:
“Achieve the target of at least 400 multidenominational primary schools by 2030, to improve parental choice”;
“Expand and prioritise the transfer of viable schools to Community National Schools”;
”Work with communities to ensure the provision of clear, non-partisan information on the preparation for, and the consequences of, the divestment process and to respond to queries raised.”
A number of patronage changes/change of ethos have taken place in recent years, resulting in the provision of an additional 14 multidenominational schools, comprising:
• 12 Community National Schools, including Nenagh CNS which transferred patronage in September 2022.
• Scoil Chaitlín Maude in Tallaght which transferred patronage in 2021 from its Catholic patron to An Foras Pátrúnachta. This Irish-medium school offers parents of junior infants the choice of undertaking an Ethics and Morality Programme or a Catholic Programme.
• Gaelscoil Moshíológ in Gorey (a gaelscoil under the patronage of An Foras Pátrúnachta) changed to a multidenominational ethos, on a phased basis from September 2022.
12 primary schools have been established under the patronage divesting process, all of which have a multidenominational ethos.
In total, 78 of the 79 primary schools which were established and/or changed patronage and/or ethos since 2011 have a multidenominational ethos.
In 2022, there were 166 primary schools with a multidenominational or inter-denominational ethos. This represents circa. 5% of mainstream primary schools.
The Schools Reconfiguration for Diversity process, supporting transfers of schools to multidenominational patrons in response to the wishes of local communities, has been developed in order to accelerate the delivery of multidenominational schools across the country.
Where a school transfers from the patronage of one patron to another, the school remains open with the same roll number and operating from the same school property. All State-funded primary schools follow a common national curriculum and are subject to the same rules and regulations.
In March 2022 I announced that arrangements are being put in place in a number of towns and areas of cities that have no multidenominational primary schools to identify potential schools and to engage with school authorities, school staff and the school communities with a view to agreeing on a transfer of patronage and change of ethos, where there is sufficient demand for this.
The pilot areas are parts of the cities of Cork, Dublin, Galway and Limerick and also the Arklow, Athlone, Dundalk and Youghal areas. The Council for Education of the Irish Episcopal Conference (representing the Catholic patrons) and relevant Bishops have confirmed their willingness to engage and co-operate fully with my Department in seeking to facilitate a more diverse school patronage in these towns and cities.
My Department made available a number of independent facilitators, who are former senior inspectors, across the pilot areas to work with the school patron and relevant school authorities at a local level.
63 schools were engaged with as part of the pilot.
The engagement at local level was completed at the end of Q1 2023 and this is helping to clarify the level of demand for reconfiguration.
The pilot has already facilitated increased diversity with the announcements that two schools in Athlone (Cornamaddy National School) and in Dublin 8 (St. Enda's, Whitefriars St) will be transferring from Catholic patronage to the local Education and Training Boards becoming multidenominational community national schools. My Department is hopeful that there will be a number of other transfers of patronage and change of ethos to multidenominational in the short term.
The learnings from the process in the pilot areas should provide a pathway forward on the process for providing multidenominational options for parents in other towns and areas of the country going forward.
The goal remains to establish a strong process, that has the support of patrons and local communities, and which will enable us to continue to increase the number of multi-denominational primary schools across the country.
To assist school patrons and school communities, my Department has published a guidance pack, setting out some general and practical information relating to transfer of patronage which may be useful for school communities and school authorities and staff where transfer of patronage of a school is being considered or implemented. This information pack is available from the schools reconfiguration page of the gov.ie website: www.gov.ie/schoolsreconfiguration, or by contacting my Department at reconfiguration@education.gov.ie
