Ireland has undergone profound change since my childhood in the late 1970s and 80s. The increased diversity of people from different ethnic and national heritages is evident in most parts of the country. This has resulted in an increasingly pluralist society, of people with a wide variety of religious and philosophical beliefs.
Ireland is grappling, in several policy areas, with how to respond to these changes, with education being one of the key areas. This is not surprising, as education is of prime importance to the individual, to society, and to the common good; local, national and global.
The human rights framework provides a relevant and important standard for understanding education both as an activity and in how states should respond to a diversity of world views within their borders. Ireland’s main international obligations to education as a human right arise from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR, 1948), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR, 1966), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC, 1989), and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR, 1950).
The Constitution of Ireland, adopted in 1937, was remarkably progressive in how it addressed education, with Article 42 anticipating by almost three decades the treatment of education as a human right in the ICESCR. Like the UDHR and ICESCR, it acknowledges that education should be directed to the full development of the human person, with the Constitution naming the elements of that holistic education: “religious and moral, intellectual, physical and social education”.
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As with the UDHR, ICESCR and ECHR, the Constitution recognises the parents as the primary educator of their children and the liberty of parents to choose a school, other than those established by the State, in sympathy with their own religious, moral and philosophical beliefs. The Constitution goes further in also securing the right of parents to educate their children in the home. Rightly, both the ICESCR and the Constitution provide for the State to have the authority to ensure that the education of all children conforms to certain minimum standards.
While the UDHR and ICESCR guarantee the rights of parents to school choice, they do not oblige states to give life to that right through public funding. However, the Irish Constitution, to the credit of the Irish people who adopted it almost 90 years ago, provides for State funding for educational initiatives established by non-State entities, including churches, but also other private patrons such as Educate Together. The Irish State not only protects this fundamental human right, but ensures that it is practically available to parents.
However, the progressive approach to education embedded in our Constitution, grounded in fundamental human rights, is under pressure. The pressure is, paradoxically, comes in the main from some who would consider themselves progressive in their policies.
They are in favour of a single uniform State model, with the ethos, or values and culture, underpinning all schools determined by the State, and all privately-owned schools seized by the State to facilitate this change. Such proposals are entirely contrary to the international human rights obligations to which Ireland is party, denying the right of parents to choose a school for their children.
This is not the only challenge: at present, the draft primary schools’ curriculum is threaded through with references to “values” without once identifying the source of those values. It is not clear what is intended here but the solution is clear – those values should be rooted in the particular ethos of the school, be that one of faith or otherwise.
Anything else is a breach of trust with parents, who apply to schools on the basis of admission policies, which, since the commencement of section nine of the Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018, has mandated schools to include a clear statement of their ethos. Parents have a fundamental right to choose a school that will “ensure the religious and moral education of their children in conformity with their own convictions” (ICESCR, Art 13.3). Any state seeking to smuggle in values not in keeping with the stated ethos of a school would be acting contrary to its human rights obligations.
Of course, the present make-up of our schools no longer matches, as it used to, the make-up of religious and philosophical beliefs in our society. Recognising such, and in keeping with a commitment to the common good, the Catholic patrons of primary schools are fully in favour of the reconfiguration of schools to better reflect the pluralist nature of our society.
This is a positive position by the patrons: it is not one adopted to get the State “off their back”. The Catholic community believes that parents are the primary educators of their children, and that schools exist to assist parents in that duty. That being so, the patrons recognise their role in contributing to the common good and are working in co-operation with the Department of Education, and with local communities, to assist the State in its obligation to provide for greater diversity in school choice.
This is not an easy task, and has been made all the more difficult by the provision of Section 11 of the Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018, the effect of which is that Catholic schools (alone among faith schools) may not prioritise admission for children from families committed to the ethos of the school. This discriminatory provision has now become a block on divestment of Catholic schools to non-Catholic patronage, with communities being unwilling to consent to reconfiguration of patronage if there is no guarantee that children from Catholic families may be prioritised in admission to the remaining Catholic-owned and run schools. This provision cuts straight across the constitutional and international human rights obligations of the Irish State.
Thankfully, the Act of 2018 requires the Minister for Education to carry out a review of the operation of Section 11 in 2025. It is hoped that a proper appraisal of the human rights framework will form a significant part of that review and that the Government will move to bring the State’s legislative approach to education back into line with its constitutional and human rights obligations.
Alan Hynes is chief executive of the Catholic Education Partnership
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