UN asks Ireland about children’s rights including secular education
This week Atheist Ireland was in Geneva for the examination of Ireland under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Atheist Ireland, along with the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and the Evangelical Alliance of Ireland, made a Submission to the UN Committee in relation to religious discrimination in the education system ...
United Nations is asking Ireland about the right to an alternative to religion class in schools
Atheist Ireland will be attending the 92nd session of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in Geneva later this month. This UN Committee will be questioning Ireland, and we have made a joint submission with the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and the Evangelical Alliance of Ireland. You can find ...
The state should not allow Catholic bishops to segregate schoolchildren by religion
The Irish Times got documents under FOI that show that the Catholic Bishops are concerned over the ability of Catholic primary schools to keep their ethos. The reason for this concern is because publicly funded Catholic schools can no longer give preference to children from catholic families. You can find ...
Catholic schools foster relations with God when teaching Relationships and Sexuality education
The Minister for Education, Norma Foley, still has no plans to amend the Education Act 1998 to guarantee that relationship and sexuality education will be delivered in an objective, critical and pluralistic manner and not through religious ethos of schools. Atheist Ireland has made submissions to the National Council for ...
FOI document shows Catholic bishops reversed Department of Education’s support for parents’ rights
Atheist Ireland has obtained, under the Freedom of Information Act, notes of a meeting between the Department of Education and representatives of the Catholic Church in 2018. At that meeting, the Department told the Catholic Church that ETB schools must respect the constitutional rights of parents for their children to ...
New primary curriculum framework does not address rights of nonreligious families
There is an Article in the Irish Times today “Primary schools to teach foreign languages as religion time cut under new proposals” by Carl O'Brien regarding a new Framework for the Primary school curriculum. It is to be published in 2023 by Minister Norma Foley. As usual this document addresses ...
ETBI contradicts Department of Education about multi-denominational status of schools
The recently published Document from Education and Training Boards Ireland, ETBI's Patrons' Framework on ethos, states that ETB schools are multi-denominational. This includes the Non-Designated Community Colleges and Designated Community Colleges. Specifically, the Ethos Framework states that: "ETB schools are state, co-educational, multi-denominational" As always the ETBs are not clear or transparent ...
Documents about misuse of state funds regarding religious instruction
Since December 2021, Atheist Ireland has been lobbying to vindicate the constitutional right to not attend religious instruction in schools, and to uphold parental authority in the education of their children, which the Supreme Court has described as a foundational pillar of the Constitution. As well as lobbying individual politicians ...
Atheist Ireland letter to Department of Education December 2022
Atheist Ireland wrote this letter to the Department of Education on 5 December 2022. [pdf-embedder url="https://teachdontpreach.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/AI-to-Dept-Ed-Dec-2022.pdf" title="AI to Dept Ed Dec 2022"]
Atheist Ireland letter to Oireachtas Education Committee December 2022
Atheist Ireland wrote this letter to the Oireachtas Education Committee on 5 December 2022. [pdf-embedder url="https://teachdontpreach.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/AI-to-Ed-Com-Dec-2022.pdf" title="AI to Ed Com Dec 2022"]