Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 13 February 2024
75. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Education to report on progress towards divestment of Catholic schools and establishment of non-denominational and multi-denominational schools; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6383/24]
View answerThe Programme for Government reflects the Government’s objective of continuing to expand the plurality of schools to reflect the full breadth of society. It sets out that “students of all religions and none should have access to education, regardless of their belief system”.
The Programme for Government commitments in this area include:
• To achieve the target of at least 400 multi-denominational primary schools by 2030, to improve parental choice;
• To expand and prioritise the transfer of viable schools to Community National Schools; and
• To 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.
In recent years progress has been made towards increasing the numbers of multi-denominational primary schools. There are 168 primary schools with a multi-denominational or inter-denominational ethos.
For historical reasons, most primary schools are State-aided parish schools, with the local Bishop as patron, although this pattern is changing. It is recognised, including by the Catholic patrons, that more diverse provision is required to cater for our changing society.
When 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 department rules and regulations.
The Schools Reconfiguration for diversity process, supporting transfers of schools to multi-denominational patrons in response to the wishes of local communities, has been developed in order to accelerate the delivery of multi-denominational schools.
When we speak of schools, we speak of communities, reflective of the rich and diverse nature of the people who make up any given school. Each day, week and year that a school is in operation requires the contribution and support of any number of people, from the school patron, to the voluntary boards of management who give so generously of their time, to hardworking staff, to the parents and students who make that demanding choice to entrust education to a given school. It is vital that each of these constituent bodies is adequately consulted and engaged in the process of reconfiguration. I am clear that reconfiguration should always take place in line with a school community’s wishes. Designing a process which adequately achieves this is no small task, and as such, the Department operated a significant pilot with school communities in a number of towns and areas of cities that had no multi-denominational primary schools. This process aimed 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 was sufficient demand for this. The engagement process was led by independent facilitators and sought to identify the key issues that arise during reconfiguration.
The engagement at local level across the 8 pilot areas was largely concluded at the end of Q1 2023, and a number of schools have transferred from Catholic patronage to the local Education and Training Board, becoming multi-denominational Community National Schools.
My Department is hopeful that there will be a number of other transfers of patronage and change of ethos to multi-denominational in the short-term.
Following consultation with relevant stakeholders, it is intended that the review of the 2022/23 engagement process will be finalised and published in Q1 2024. It is envisaged that it will include a framework and action plan for delivering on the Government commitment for increasing multi-denominational provision.
One of the most important next steps is to run the first ever national survey of parents in respect of primary school reconfiguration. The Department has dedicated significant time and resources to the design of this survey, and further details will be made available in due course.
My 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.
Multi-denominational schools are the single largest sector in post-primary in terms of both student enrolments and number of schools.
In the current school year, there are 201,102 students enrolled in multi-denominational schools (this figure includes interdenominational). Catholic post-primary schools have 199,292 students while Church of Ireland have 12,416 students.
There are a total of 358 multi-denominational post-primary schools in the same timeframe, while Catholic post-primary schools totalled 337 and Church of Ireland had 21.
