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County View There is a real danger that we may see the emergence of a two-tier system at primary school level.
CHANGING TIMES The Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, pictured here at the Humbert Summer School, has acknowledged the need for a ‘plurality of patrons’ at primary level. But is there a danger of a two-tier system emerging? Pic: Keith Heneghan/Phocus Schools of democracy
County View John Healy
THAT small but vocal group which campaigns for the Catholic Church to divest itself of primary school management could yet wind up with what it desires. But at what cost to quality of Irish life in general? The Balbriggan crisis, where the pupils enrolled in two new schools are almost exclusively black and immigrant, should be a stern warning that in dismantling what we have, we should make haste slowly. Up to now, and unarguably, there are no more democratic institutions in the state than the primary school. In every town and village, children of every different social background sit side by side to be educated together. There are no class distinctions, no racial inequality, newcomers and locals integrate together in the classroom and the school yard. There are no hierarchies of class or position. That all comes later. In fact, many newcomer families agree that one of the places where they have felt welcomed, respected and valued by the state is in the primary school. There are hundreds of parents, newly settled in a town or community, whose first contact with others is by way of their children’s induction into the local primary school. Of course, times are changing. And, of course, the current system whereby the Catholic Church manages 98 per cent of the nation’s primary schools can no longer serve the needs of a pluralist society. The Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, has already acknowledged the need for a ‘plurality of patrons’ at primary level. He has even been more specific, predicting a situation where the Catholic Church would divest control of, for example, two schools in an area where there are five existing primary schools. So far, so good, But what about the pitfalls? There is a real danger that, for the first time, we would see the emergence of a two-tier system at primary school level. The middle class, traditional sector would stay with the old established Catholic schools; the newcomer children, the less prosperous and the non-Christian immigrants would enrol in state-run schools. The social divisions which have emerged in second level education in Dublin would be replicated in primary education around the country. Even in Britain, where mainstream education has long been in the hands of secular management, the fashionable trend is to send children to be educated in Catholic-run schools. One of the great benefits of the Irish primary school system is that the school reflects the local community in all its mix and colours and backgrounds. The classroom is a microcosm of what, ideally, things should be on the broader stage. Whether that is because of, or in spite of, the church’s grip on school management is neither here nor there. What matters is that, in throwing out one system, we don’t replace it with something far less desirable.
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