Atheist Ireland asks NCCA to recommend change in law for senior cycle SPHE
Atheist Ireland has made the following submission to the NCCA Consultation on the redevelopment of Senior Cycle SPHE. 1. Overview 2. Why legal change is needed 3. Constitutional rights of parents 4. Legal route to course being taught through religious ethos 5. Catholic Church Guidelines on teachers upholding their ethos ...
Parents, not church or state, have the right to provide religious and moral education
The Catholic Bishops wrote to the Dept of Education in 2018, in relation to Circular Letter 0013/2018 issued by the Department of Education. This Circular obliged ETB schools to give students another subject if they exercised their right to not attend religious instruction. It recognised that schools should offer students ...
The state must protect the constitutional right to not attend religious instruction in schools
The Department of Education interferes in the Constitutional rights of parents through the NCCA second level Religious Education course. This course seeks to develop values in students to enable them to see the relevance of religion to their lives and relationships. When parents seek to exercise their Constitutional right for ...
New Atheist Ireland report – Schools are still defying the law on admission policies
Two years ago, in October 2020, we published a report on how 100 sample schools were defying the legal requirement to publish an Admission Policy which must include details of the school’s arrangements for students who do not want to attend religious instruction. We brought the results to the attention ...
Religious school ethos should not influence social, personal, and health education
Atheist Ireland has made the following submission to the NCCA's consultation on the updated junior cycle SPHE curriculum. The aim of the updated short course is 'to nurture students' self-awareness and positive self-worth and to develop the knowledge, understanding, skills, dispositions and values that will help them to create and ...
Public Accounts Committee letter to Atheist Ireland October 2022
The Public Accounts Committee wrote this letter to Atheist Ireland 10 October 2022. [pdf-embedder url="https://teachdontpreach.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/PAC-to-AI-Oct-2022.pdf" title="PAC to AI Oct 2022"]
Atheist Ireland submission to UN on combating intolerance based on religion or belief
Atheist Ireland has made the following submission to the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights who is preparing report on combating intolerance against persons based on religion or belief. Contents 1. Background to Atheist Ireland 2. Our recommendations 3. The UN and States should use the phrase ‘religion or belief’ consistently ...
Burke v Minister for Education
Here are the judgements at the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court in relation to the Burke v Minister for Education which deals with Constitutional rights in relation to education. [pdf-embedder url="https://teachdontpreach.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/2022_IESC_1_ODonnell-C.J..pdf" title="2022_IESC_1_O'Donnell C.J."] [pdf-embedder url="https://teachdontpreach.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Case-ofBurkeeSupreme2022_IESC_1_Charleton-J..pdf" title="Case ofBurkeeSupreme2022_IESC_1_Charleton J."] [pdf-embedder url="https://teachdontpreach.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Case-of-Burke-2021_IECA_67.pdf" title="Case of Burke 2021_IECA_67"] ...
Atheist Ireland, Evangelical Alliance, and Ahmadi Muslims update the UN on rights of children
Atheist Ireland, the Evangelical Alliance of Ireland, and the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community of Ireland, made a joint submission to the UN Children's Rights Committee as it prepares to question Ireland next January. You can read that submission here. We also met with the UN Committee last week in Geneva, along ...
Another year and another €10 million for Catholic chaplains in ETB schools
Back to school and back to €10 million for Chaplains. Mostly Catholic and some Church of Ireland chaplains cost the state approx €10 million per year. Chaplains are paid to help mainly Catholic parents with the religious education and religious formation of their children outside of the religious instruction class ...