It has been suggested by Paddy Monahan that religious teaching should be conducted outside of regular school hours. This advice is timely and echoes the directives of a Royal Commission from 1828 – the result of which saw the National Board of Education’s establishment in 1831. The Board was intended to oversee the education of children from the labouring classes, aged between six and twelve years. This education was employed through a combined secular teaching system, allowing for separate religious instruction to take place beyond the norms of a school day, courtesy of the clergy.
Conversely, arguing that a comprehensive Catholic upbringing could be replaced with outside-of-school ‘faith formation’ lessons is likened to suggesting that full-education-through-Irish-language has the potential for successful replacement via extracurricular ‘Gaeilge formation’ lessons.
In view of this, parents who choose to send their offspring to Catholic schools, including me, are pleased for our youngsters to partake in faith instruction within the school day and to take part in the sacraments with their peer group. If there was a high percentage of parents taking their children out of faith instruction in Catholic schools, there might be some validity to the argument for removing religion from schools, however, this is not the real situation.
Currently, around 13,000 primary school students maintain an exemption from studying Irish. However, no suggestions have been made to halt the teaching of Irish in schools due to the risk of exempt children feeling excluded. I argue that suitable allowances should exist for pupils opting out of subjects such as Irish and religious studies, and assurances should be made that schools are adequately equipped to accommodate this. I believe Mr Monahan would concur.
The real issue is not the presence of faith instruction within schools, rather the paucity of diversity in available school types. The government has committed to introducing 400 multi-denominational primary schools by 2040. It falls under their remit to cater for parents wanting to enrol their children in non-denominational schools.
Religious faith and practices offer advantages that surpass individual ideologies and personal predilections. Studies conducted by the Mayo Clinic substantiate this, indicating a correlation between religious engagement, spirituality, and improved health results. Instances include enhanced life expectancy, superior coping mechanisms, an elevated health-related quality of life and decreased instances of anxiety, depression and suicide. Given the demanding circumstances that primary school students encounter, it becomes apparent that instilling a religious education to avail of these advantages ought to be of utmost importance, don’t you think? – Yours sincerely, CLARE CLIFFORD, Stepaside, Co Dublin.