Their mission to promote “faith formation” does not inevitably lead to the practice of indoctrination but the manner in which religion is taught in Catholic schools does.

As state-funded schools they fail in their obligation to protect the rights of families from Catholic/minority/non-faith families who wish to opt out of religion classes; rights that are guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights.

Until 1997, religion classes were known as Religious Instruction, at which the Supreme Court had made clear, students had a right not to physically attend. In the 1997 curriculum, the subject was renamed Religious Education. 

The inference in the change was that students would follow a broad course on Religious Studies and not, as is patently still the case, an adapted programme in faith formation, with clear missionary intent.

Though families who wish to opt their children out of religion technically have that right, the reality is that opting out is not possible as their children are obliged to remain in the room during religion classes. 

This sleight of hand cannot be challenged by parents without them taking a potentially ruinous case to the Supreme Court against a school whose case would be fully funded by the public purse via the school’s insurance policy.

Secular subjects

Also concerning to these parents is the fact that religious content can appear in secular subjects (the Integrated Curriculum). The ‘Flourish’ Relationships and Sexuality Education programme is a clear example of this problem.

In it, students learned that “we are perfectly designed by God to procreate with him”. 

Conor O’Mahony, former special rapporteur on child protection, has written that: “The effect of the integrated curriculum is that it is impossible for a child to attend the vast majority of primary schools in Ireland without being exposed to and influenced by, Catholic teachings.”

The Report of the Forum on Patronage and Pluralism in 2012 made the same point. It stated that curricular and timetable changes would be required in all of our denominational schools if they were to meet their human rights obligations to non/minority faith students. The report also noted that as some denominational schools “did not illustrate sufficient understanding of the human rights issues involved”, there was “an urgent need for ‘opt-out’ arrangements to be more satisfactorily dealt with in schools”.

Baseless reassurances

A decade later, the baseless reassurances of religious patrons as to the inclusive nature of their schools for affected families suggests nothing has changed. The inaction of the State has inevitably drawn criticism from a slew of domestic and international institutions.

In its 2016 report, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child stressed the need for “accessible options for children to opt out of religious classes and access appropriate alternatives to such classes, in accordance with the needs of children of minority faith or non-faith backgrounds”.

In 2017, the Ombudsman for Children’s Office agreed, stating it was essential that “religion should be removed from the integrated curriculum” and “denominational religious teaching should be confined to a specific class which should be scheduled in such a way to make it practical for children to opt out if so requested”. The OCO was also concerned about the absence of student voice in a religion debate often limited to the views of patrons and parents.

In 2022, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Report recommended “the State consider amending the Education Act 1998 to set down minimum standards for a school’s policy on arrangements for students who opt out of denominational teaching, or use ministerial power to make regulations on how schools shall provide for such students”. The same year, the Children’s Rights Alliance called for “the child to be heard in determining whether they wish to be exempted from religious instruction”, followed the next year by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child
calling for revision of the Education Act and Equal Status Acts to ensure pupils can freely practise their religion or beliefs at school.

The treatment of students who are ‘opted out’ of faith-formation classes is the most visceral and visible form of this discrimination.

The presumption that children being exposed to religious formation against their and/or their parents’ wishes is ‘harmless’ belies the ignorance of many educators to the nature and importance of religious rights.

One assumes these educators’ minds would focus quickly if their children had to be present for lessons in Islamic or Hebrew faith-formation classes on a daily basis for eight years. 

However, the daily humiliation of these very young children also undoubtedly acts as a deterrent to a larger group of parents who might also prefer that their children study a general beliefs/ethics course. Whether they recognise it or not, these parents are experiencing a form of coercion, as fundamental rights should be easy to access and without the need for justification, significant effort, or risk.

It is often suggested that denominational schools lack resources to better accommodate these children, but this is largely an untenable argument, as in most cases, religion and ethics classes could be co-timetabled, following a survey to parents.

The process of secularisation is even visible in the Church’s own data. The Genesis Report (data collected in 2019) showed: A majority of parents at primary (56%) and second level (66%) did not choose schools because of their religious ethos; priests, nuns, and pastoral workers were seen as the least influential people in children’s educational lives; and there was a “new interpretation” of Catholicism among Irish people that was “less reliant on religious practice, sacraments, and tradition”.

The minister and her department must reconsider religion in schools from a human rights-based perspective, not just from a school management one.

• Colm O’Connor is principal of Cork Educate Together Secondary School