How to let Ruairi Quinn know your concerns about inclusive schools.
The Minister for Education and Skills, Ruairí Quinn, is seeking submissions on promoting greater inclusiveness in primary schools. Information on the process can be accessed here http://www.education.ie/en/Press-Events/Conferences/Patronage-and-Pluralism-in-the-Primary-Sector/Call-for-Submissions-on-the-Recommendations-of-the-Advisory-Group-to-the-Forum-on-Patronage-and-Pluralism-in-the-Primary-Sector.pdf
The majority of schools in Ireland are religious and the United Nations Human Rights Committee has raised concern regarding the human rights of secular parents and their children.
In order to assist parents in making a submission to the Department of Education, Atheist Ireland will be publishing next week details of human rights concerns so that parents are aware of their rights.
These rights are:-
The right to be free from discrimination.
The right to freedom of conscience.
The rights of the child.
The right to equality before the law.
We will highlight the various issues such as the religious integrated curriculum and opting out of religious instruction classes. We hope that identifying the human rights issues will help parents with the process of making a submission on inclusion in schools.
If you want to read these details to help you make a submission to the Department on this issue, please check this website next week.
2 Comments
Hi
Teaching religion within our educational facilities is a divisive, coercive, corrosive and sectarian practice except in the context of a philosophical discourse about all faiths.
Education / indoctrination into any one particular religion is the responsibility of the specific religious community involved and should happen outside of school hours in facilities provided for by those groups.
My best wishes to your group in it’s campaign to achieve a fully secular country.
Yours sincerely
Chris Ramsey.
Ruairi got the heave ho, so dont bother sending any more advice to him. He will soon be retiring on his gold plated pension while we will still have homeless people dying on our streets, old people languishing on trolleys in our hospitals, and school children coming home complaining about the big size of classes and cold in the classrooms. They are a lot more things more important that forcing religion off the curriculum.