Primary teachers vote for INTO taskforce on religion and school patronage
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Teachers have voted for the establishment of a union taskforce on faith formation and school patronage at the Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) annual conference.
Proposing a motion to survey members on their attitudes towards school patronage and faith formation in schools, teacher Tomás O'Reilly urged the room to imagine what it is like for students of a different religion or none.
He said: “Is that inclusive education where we as teachers are forced to ‘other’ those children? Is it right that those individuals have to do independent work at their desk as their classmates discuss religion and the sacrament they are preparing for?
"I feel it is very important to imagine what it is like for that Muslim, Jewish, Protestant, Jehovah Witness, Hindu, [or] atheist child, sitting there in a state-funded classroom with a state-funded teacher, where they teach a certain religion in a faith formation way.
Seconding the motion, Peter Melrose focused on the removal of the Catholic certificate to teach in Catholic primary school.
When interviewing for a recent job, Mr Melrose said that the very first question he was asked was about religious instruction.
Paddy Monaghan, addressing what he called the “elephant in the room”, questioned the time given to faith formation during school hours.
“Weeks and weeks of the school year are set aside for this. The curriculum is already overloaded.
"I’m a supply teacher and again and again I am asked to take the other kids who aren’t make their confirmation, and the guilt that I feel standing in that room with those kids, many of them from a refugee background."