Losing Our Religion

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eemingly determined to plough on through the recent overwhelming vote of no confidence, St Patrick National School’s Board Of Management may now just have to accept that something is amiss.

Given that Senator Ivana Bacik has now brought the matter up with the Minister for Education & Skills, Deputy Richard Bruton, in a recent Dáil session.

We won’t bore you with all the downs and downs that have occurred inbetween Eileen Jackson‘s resignation as principal of St Patrick’s in July and the resignation of yet another teacher, Ms Kiara Drake, last week. Suffice to say, many parents – and regular Church of Ireland attendees – are not impressed, especially given the increasingly hardline approach of both Canon David Mungavin and his temporary school board chairman stand-in, Canon Adrienne Galligan [pictured], two true believers in the Gospel According to Archbishop Michael Jackson.

Instead, let us give the floor to a regular and trusted GG reader who, understandably, would rather remain nameless. Given that they may one day have a child – or, indeed, a grandchild – who might like to go to St Patrick’s National School.

Take it away, heretic…

To all of you wondering what’s been going on at St. Patrick’s NS and if it’s resolved, it’s not there yet. Basically it’s a case of Holy Moly, this is still dragging on and it’s now in the Seanad. Some parents did some work with Senator Ivana Bacik in raising this issue so as to get clarification around the whole issue of the behaviour of the Board of Management of St Patrick’s NS regarding enrolments. The outcome is as follows:

Point #1
The Minister has made clear that the enrolment policy must be available for inspection, and that it must be applied fairly, i.e. you can’t have a public policy and a different private policy.
We are aware that the enrolment policy for St. Patrick’s NS changed three years ago from the resignation letter of Principal Eileen Jackson and the clarification letter from community representative Niamh O’Mahony about her resignation.
We know that the policy change was that parochial engagement and church attendance at St. Patrick’s in Greystones were now being used as a selection criteria for admission to St. Patrick’s NS.
The effect of this change was that people were assessed by a criteria that was not made available to them. This changed criteria was not reflected in the published documentation.
The result is that people would/could have been refused a place and were unaware why they were rejected. Therefore this would have resulted in a lack of knowledge allowing them to make an appeal, because they were unaware of the rejection criteria.

Point #2
The Minister has unequivocally clarified that this behaviour by a Board of Management will not be allowed under the new legislation.
This has huge implications for school enrolment throughout the country but specifically for St. Patrick’s NS, Temple Carraig School and Delgany NS locally.
They will no longer be able to use church engagement and attendance as a selection criteria for admission. This is a massive change.
The Minister has specifically stated that linking “school admission with church attendance would not meet the requirements of the provisions of the law” (new law)
This clarification is as a direct result of the behaviour of the Board of Management of St Patrick’s NS Greystones.

Point #3
As previously reported we have lost another teacher. To date we have lost in order

Fearghal MacGrionna, Vice Principal
Niamh O’Mahony, Community Representative
Eileen Jackson, Principal
Grainne Henry, teacher
Kiara Drake, teacher
Aisling Barrett, teacher

Everyone of these resignations is related to the behaviour of the Board of Management, yet the new Chairperson of the Board of Management says she’s not here to investigate and that she has no evidence of dysfunctionality. One can only ask how could she get evidence without investigating, and by stating that she’s not there to investigate, she’s defacto ignoring and suppressing the evidence of dysfunctionality.
The school has been decimated of senior management and senior teaching staff, yet nothing is being done to determine why. In a ten-teacher school, we have now lost five teachers. How many more have to resign or leave before the Minister of Education intervenes?

Point #4
All the above shows that Principal Eileen Jackson has been proven to have acted correctly.
It is against any and all principles of natural justice that her job would be advertised and a replacement sought prior to this matter being properly investigated.
The new Chairperson of the Board of Management should suspend the interview process and investigate the behaviour of the Board of Management that has led to these resignations and the destabilisation of the school community.

Point #5
The Minister fro Education and Skills has committed to introducing a parent and student Charter Bill – this should address some of the behaviour we have seen at St Patrick’s NS over the past few years. Minister Bruton stated, “One of the Bills I hope to shortly present to the House is a parent and student charter Bill, which would ensure that parents are consulted when there is any proposal to change admission policy. The future direction of reform is to be more embracing of parents and students in the running of schools while respecting the distinctive role of the patron and the board.”

Below is the detailed response from Minister Richard Bruton to questions posed by Senator Ivana Bacik in the Seanad, specifically regarding the behaviour of the Board of Management of St Patrick’s NS.

Subject: Re: Greystones school matter today

School Admissions Commencement Matter, 25 Sep. 18
Senator Ivana Bacik

The need for the Minister for Education to inform the House as to what measures he proposes to take in respect of ongoing issues concerning school admissions and governance that have arisen in recent months at St Patrick’s National School, Greystones , in particular concerning the linking of school admission policies with church attendance; and whether he has engaged directly with the school’s Patron in order to ensure that these issues are resolved satisfactorily.

Minister for Education and Skills (Deputy Richard Bruton)

I thank Senator Bacik for raising this issue. To put it in context, it is important to state that, under our education system, patrons’ boards of management have an independent role. It is a right of religious institutions to run their own schools, which is protected in the Constitution, and to have their own characteristic spirit, but they must do so within the laws of the land.

The issue of admission to schools is governed by two sets of legislation, the first of which are the Education Acts. As the Senator will be aware, under our system, parents have a right to choose whatever school they wish their children to attend and schools must have an admission policy which must be available for inspection by parents. That admissions policy must be non-discriminatory and be applied fairly in respect of all those who apply. The other element is the Equal Status Act, to which the Deputy referred, which provides protection to schools at present which select on the basis of religion in preference to others. As the Deputy is aware, I have been a critic of this and have introduced legislation to change that, which was recently passed in Seanad.

The position regarding decisions on admission by a board of management or a school are appealable to the Department of Education and Skills. Therefore, the Department or, in the case of the Equal Status Act, the Workplace Relations Commission will assess whether the school has applied the admission policy fairly and whether it has been done in accordance with the law as set out. To my knowledge, an appeal regarding unfair admission has not been made at this point to the Department.

As the Deputy will be aware, I hope to implement, at the earliest possible date, the new provisions of the Education (Admission to Schools) Bill. As she will know from discussions in this House, while I have sought to remove religion as a criterion for admission generally, I have provided that a child of a minority religion should be able to apply to a school of that ethos and be given preference in view of the effort we make to ensure that a child or his or her parents gets access to their preferred education.

This measure which I have introduced is proportionate. It does not provide protection to the use of religion in the case of children of a majority religion because they have 18 out of every 20 schools from which to choose, but a child of a minority religion could have only one of every 20 schools from which to choose. This is a proportionate and fair provision.

In assessing that, it is important that consideration is given to what the legislation is providing for. A primary school may give priority to the admission of a student where the school is satisfied that the student concerned is a member of a minority religion and the school provides a programme of religion instruction or religious education which is of the same religious ethos or a similar religious ethos to the religious ethos of the minority religion of the student concerned. The school will only be allowed to take account of the statement that the applicant has provided and any evidence that the applicant has provided that he or she is a member of a minority religion. Schools that admit students of a minority religion in accordance with this provision of the Act will not be permitted to rank those students according to the particular denomination or religion of the child concerned. I do not believe that linking school admission with church attendance would meet the provisions of the law.

It should be said also that these provisions only apply where a school is oversubscribed. Where a school is not oversubscribed, it is obliged to take all applicants, regardless of religion.

This is a significant step forward in giving fair access for all parents. I have also amended the provisions of section 29 of the Act, which continues to prevail, so that where a student feels he or she has been unreasonably refused access, he or she has the right to make an appeal. I will continue to reform in this area. One of the Bills I hope to shortly present to the House is a parent and student charter Bill, which would ensure that parents are consulted when there is any proposal to change admission policy. The future direction of reform is to be more embracing of parents and students in the running of schools while respecting the distinctive role of the patron and the board.

Senator Ivana Bacik

I will make some very brief follow-up remarks. I thank the Minister for his very full response to my question. I am grateful to him for outlining the changes the new legislation will make. When are they likely to come into effect? I support the Minister, and we supported the Bill in the Oireachtas. I am very grateful to him for stating that he does not believe linking school admission with church attendance would meet the provisions of the new Act, once in force. I agree with him that the Act is a significant step and is very positive.

I am also grateful to the Minister for outlining that he will introduce a parent and student charter. Will that enable parents to have an input if there is any change in admissions policy, even if the change is to the interpretation or application of the policy rather than to its wording? There is a subtle difference but a very important one in the context of this particular case, and possibly in other cases. Parents should be informed even where there is a proposal to change the way a policy is being interpreted or applied.

There is a broader issue concerning church-State relations in education. I raised in the Seanad previously the issue of teacher training and a concern about different strands of admission with different CAO points for admission to different religious denominational teacher training courses, at DCU in particular. I will raise that with the Minister perhaps in a separate context but there is a bigger issue to be addressed.

Deputy Richard Bruton

We must recognise there is diversity and diversity is a good thing. That means there needs to be a diversity of teachers capable of maintaining the ethos of a given school. We have recognised that the right to have distinctive strands of teachers should be protected.

The parent and student charter legislation will come before the House for a thorough debate. It is my intention that schools would involve parents in any significant change that would impact on them. When we debate the Bill in detail Senator Bacik will have a chance to see whether the phraseology meets her concerns. I do not have the wording to hand to verify the exact phraseology being used.

I am in consultation with the Attorney General’s office to ensure that the way I proceed to implement the different sections of the Bill is legally sound and proper. I hope those consultations will be completed shortly, at which point I will be in a position to make known the schedule of implementation.

Well, at this point in the game, all we can say is, John 11:35.