Outcry after primary school tells parents pupils 'required' to attend all religious ceremonies
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A Church of Ireland primary school is to review its ethos statement after it told parents pupils were “required” to attend all school religious ceremonies.
St Andrew’s National School in Lucan, Co Dublin, told parents in a message issued via Aladdin school software service that students were "are required to participate in all subject areas and attend all school religious ceremonies".
"As part of the culture of this school, children are informed about Santa Claus, Halloween, and the expectation that surrounds this. We do not permit any other view within school,” it read.
“Every child in Ireland has a constitutional right to attend any publicly funded school without attending religious instruction,” said David Graham, of Education Equality.
Education Equality is a volunteer group campaigning for secular education on the basis children should have equal access to schools regardless of religion.
“Children also have the right not to be forced to attend religious ceremonies against their will, in line with their human right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion," Mr Graham said.
“The Department of Education is clearly failing in its duty to provide effective guidance, oversight and enforcement to ensure that these rights are upheld in the schools it funds. Meanwhile, the Government appears blind to the growing disconnect between schools’ religious ethos and contemporary Irish society.”
When contacted by the , a spokesman for the school’s board of management said it noted the concerns raised about the message. “The message in question contains a quotation from the school’s ethos statement. The ethos statement will be reviewed in full by the board of management of the school at its next board meeting. We have no further comment to make at this time.”
Education Equality is calling on the Government to compel schools to confine religious instruction and worship to a period at the end of the school day, outside core hours. Doing so would uphold families’ human and constitutional rights to freedom of religion and belief, according to the group.
Mr Graham added: “Having failed to deliver on the commitments in the last programme for government in 2020, the next government must convene a citizens’ assembly on the future of education without delay. Irish society has changed — our schools must too.”
The 2020 programme for government stated it would "establish a citizens assembly on the future of education, ensuring that the voices of young people and those being educated are central".