Social Items

TPQ
Showing posts with label Religion @ Schools. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Religion @ Schools. Show all posts
Friendly Atheist ★ She turned in a Bible sermon instead of an essay and failed. Now conservatives say she’s the victim.

Samantha Fulnecky, a conservative student at the University of Oklahoma, insists that she’s a victim of religious discrimination after receiving a failing grade on a homework assignment for which she didn’t produce anything of value but referenced the Bible a whole bunch of times.

And now the educator on the other end of this false claim has been placed on administrative leave.

The assignment was for a psychology course and required students to read and respond to a decade-old article on “Gender Typicality, Peer Relations, and Mental Health.” The paper in question basically showed that students who are gender typical tend to be perceived as more popular, and that boys who are gender atypical suffer worse mental health outcomes.

Students were asked to respond to that paper in a essay. They could talk about whether the issue was worth studying, how they connected (or didn’t!) to the research, how the study related to other areas of interest, alternative interpretations of what the researchers found, etc.

Continue @ Friendly Atheist.

Christian Idiot

Atheist Ireland ✏ welcomes today’s concluding observations about Ireland from the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. We were in Geneva last month when the Committee questioned Ireland, and the Committee has made all of the recommendations we asked for.

The UN has told Ireland to remove all exceptions based on religious or ethos to children attending any school; to establish statutory guidelines to ensure children’s right not to attend religious classes; to establish non-denominational schools as well as multi-denominational schools.

Atheist Ireland made the above recommendations along with our colleagues in the Evangelical Alliance and the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community of Ireland. We liaised with the UN Committee members in Geneva on follow-up questions to Irish State’s initial responses.

The UN Committee has also told Ireland to to eliminate discrimination against children of minority faith or non-faith backgrounds; to ensure access of adolescent girls to free and safe abortion; and to integrate evidence-based sex education into mandatory school curricula and teacher training.

UN Recommendations on Freedom of thought, conscience and religion

21. The Committee urges the State party to guarantee the right of all children to practice freely their religion or belief, including by:

(a) Amending the Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018 and the Equal Status Acts to remove any exceptions to ensuring a child’s right to education in all primary and secondary schools based on religious or “ethos” grounds and to establish statutory guidelines to ensure children’s right not to attend religious classes;

(b) Developing a time-bound strategy, with adequate resources, for meeting its targets for increasing the availability of multi-denominational schools by 2030, and setting a target with a time-bound strategy and adequate resources for increasing the availability of non-denominational schools.

Relevance of these UN Recommendations

This report is another step towards equality in religion and belief in Irish schools. We cannot continue to discriminate against children in this manner. It is religious discrimination to refuse a child access to education, or to discriminate against them within a school, because their parents are atheists or belong to a minority faith.

Amending the Education (Admissions to Schools) Act 2018 and the Equal Status Acts will ensure that all children regardless of their religion or belief will have access to their local schools without religious discrimination. Currently non-Catholic primary schools and all secondary schools can discriminate in access based on religion, and all schools can refuse access to a five-year-old child if they say the child undermines the school’s ethos.

Having statutory guidelines on the right to not attend religious instruction will mean that the human and constitutional right to not attend religious instruction will be given practical application on the ground. Currently children are left sitting in the religion class and are not supervised outside the class. This concluding observation reflects Article 44.2.4 of the Irish Constitution which guarantees the right to not attend religious instruction and makes it a condition of state aid.

Providing non-denominational schools is the only way to provide secular education in Ireland. At present there are no non-denominational schools (as well as multi-denominational schools, which are religious schools). During follow-up questions in Geneva, the Irish State admitted that it has no plans to open any non-denominational schools. The UN has now specifically told them to do this.

⏩ Follow Atheist Ireland on Twitter @atheistie

UN Tells Ireland To Remove All Religious Discrimination In Schools

Atheist Ireland ✒ When protecting the right of children to not attend religious instruction in schools receiving public money, it is important to use the language in the Constitution.


In particular, the right to “not attend” must not be conflated with “opting out” or “not participating”. These ambiguous phrases have no basis in law, and in practice they allow schools to make children sit at the back of the religion class.


And the Department of Education has a duty to ensure that policy is turned into an administrative scheme that abides by the Constitution, and that, in any given situation, the result should be the same, whether it is administrator A or administrator B who has taken the decision.

However, on 25 May the Minister for Education Norma Foley gave a written reply in the Dail to Richard Bruton TD about this issue. Both the question and the answer use phrases that are different from the right expressed in Article 44.2.4 the Constitution, which is:

Legislation providing State aid for schools shall not… be such as to affect prejudicially the right of any child to attend a school receiving public money without attending religious instruction at that school.

The question uses the following phrase: “do not wish to participate in” instead of “not attend”

The Minister’s reply uses the following phrases:

  • “have their children opt out” instead of “not attend”
  • “the right to opt of religion classes” instead of “not attend”

To add to the confusion, the Minister also uses the phrase “without attending” when quoting from Section 30 of the Education Act. She also refers interchangeably to “religious instruction classes”, “religious instruction in the school”, and “religion classes.”

She also states that the manner in which any school ensures that the right to opt out of religion classes is upheld is a matter for the school concerned. This is contrary to the recent Supreme Court judgment in the Burke case, which states that:

Policy . . . must be turned into an administrative scheme… Any such a scheme must abide by the Constitution. That is the over- arching jurisdiction under which every organ of the State must act.
It is of the essence of good administration that the principle must be fairly clear and precise so that, in any given situation, the result should be the same, whether it is administrator A or administrator B who has taken the decision.

The right to not attend religious instruction is written into the Constitution. It is not a matter for each school concerned because it is the Condtitutional duty of the Minister and also a condition of state funding.

Here is the question from Richard Bruton TD:

To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if her Department has undertaken a review of the manner in which schools with religious patrons have delivered on the obligations to children for whom it has been indicated that they do not wish to participate in religious arrangements; and if she is considering issuing guidelines on the matter.

Here is the response from the Minister for Education Norma Foley:

Under Article 44 of the Constitution and in accordance with Section 30 of the Education Act, 1998, parents have a right to have their children opt out of religious instruction classes if they so wish. It is expected that this right will be upheld by schools on foot of a parental request.
Under the provisions of the Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018, where schools provide religious instruction, they must clearly set out in their admission policies the school’s arrangements for students, where the parent or in the case of a student who has reached the age of 18 years, the student, has requested that the student attend the school without attending religious instruction in the school.
The manner in which any school ensures that the right to opt out of religion classes is upheld is a matter for the school concerned. Each individual school must determine the particular arrangements which are most appropriate in its individual circumstances having regard to local issues such as available space, supervision requirements and how the school concerned organises classes etc.
The right of parents to have their child opt out of religion classes applies in all schools regardless of the denomination or ethos of the school concerned.

Atheist Ireland continues to lobby to vindicate the Constitutional right of any child to attend a school receiving public money without attending religious instruction at that school. This includes highlighting when the Minister for Education uses language that is imprecise or contrary to Supreme Court judgments.

Keep Up @ Atheist Ireland.

Minister For Education Gives Misleading Dail Answer About The Right To Not Attend Religious Instruction

Atheist Ireland ✒ For years Atheist Ireland has been campaigning to protect the constitutional rights of all families in the education system. Parents have positive inalienable rights regarding the education of their children, and nonreligious parents have the same positive rights as religious parents.

These rights come under: 

  • Article 41.1 and 42.1 “The State recognises the Family as the natural primary and fundamental unit group of Society… The State acknowledges that the primary and natural educator of the child is the Family and guarantees to respect the inalienable right and duty of parents…”
  • Article 44.2.1 “Freedom of conscience and the free profession and practice of religion are, subject to public order and morality, guaranteed to every citizen.”
  • Article 42.4 “The State shall provide for free primary education and shall endeavour to supplement and give reasonable aid to private and corporate educational initiative, and, when the public good requires it, provide other educational facilities or institutions with due regard, however, for the rights of parents, especially in the matter of religious and moral formation.”
  • Article 44.2.4 “Legislation providing State aid for schools shall not discriminate between schools under the management of different religious denominations, nor be such as to affect prejudicially the right of any child to attend a school receiving public money without attending religious instruction at that school.”

However, in practice, atheist and non religious families are discriminated against in the education system and treated as second class citizens. The State gives privilege to religious families and supports discrimination against atheist and non religious families.

We are also campaigning to ensure that the State recognises the judgements in the Supreme Court and the High Court in relation to the rights of parents and their children. At present the Department of Education ignores Supreme Court judgements despite the fact that they are binding authority.

The courts have defined the terms religious and moral Education (Article 42), religious and moral formation (Article 42.4) and religious instruction (Article 44.2.4). The Department of Education cannot define these rights according to their own understanding, which is what they are now doing.

We are also trying to get the Department of Education to recognise the Irish version of the Constitution. The Irish version of the Constitution takes legal precedence and is far more nuanced in relation to the rights of parents than the English version.

For example under Article 42.4 the English version obliges the state to have “with due regard, however, for the rights of parents, especially in the matter of religious and moral formation”. The Irish version translates directly into “as regards the formation of the mind in religious and moral affairs’.

The Irish version is far more nuanced than the English version and it means that the Department of Education and the NCCA have absolutely no right to decide for parents what is or is not suitable religious and moral formation and education for their children.

Here are some other relevant distinctions in the four Articles in the Constitution that impact on the rights of families in the education system. They are from ‘Bunreacht na hÉireann: a study of the Irish text’, written by Micheál Ó Cearúil and published in 1999 by All Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution.

Article 41.1

  • (inalienable rights of the family)‘All positive law’ is expressed as ‘aon reacht daonna’ or ‘any human statute/law’.
  • ‘Indispensable’ is expressed as ‘éigeantach’, usually translated as ‘compulsory’.
  • ‘To protect’ is expressed as ‘a chaomhnú’, ‘to cherish’/‘to preserve’.

Article 42.1 

  • (rights of parents in education)The word ‘educator’ is expressed as ‘múinteoir’, which means ‘teacher’.
  • ‘To respect’ is expressed as ‘gan cur isteach ar’ (‘not to interfere with’). The phrase ‘the religious and moral (etc) education of their children’ appears as ‘i gcúrsaí creidimh, moráltachta (etc)’ which means ‘in religious, moral (etc) affairs’.
  • ‘Religious’ and ‘moral’ are separated by a comma, therefore explicitly treated as separate matters, in the Irish text.
  • ‘Education’ appears as ‘Oideachas’. Dinneen’s entry under this headword includes ‘advice, instruction, teaching, education’. DIL translates ‘oidecht’ and ‘oides’ respectively as ‘teaching, training’ and ‘teaching, instruction’.

Article 42.4

  • (due regard for rights of parents when funding schools) 
  • ‘Endeavour’ is expressed as ‘iarracht a dhéanamh’, ‘make an effort’.
  • ‘Corporate’ is expressed as ‘cumannta’, ‘communal’.
  • ‘In the matter of religious and moral formation’ is expressed as ‘maidir le múnlú na haigne i-gcúrsaí creidimh is moráltachta’ (‘as regards the formation of the mind in religious and moral affairs’).

Article 44.2.4 

  • (right to not attend religious instruction when funding schools): ‘Legislation .. shall not discriminate’ is expressed as ‘ní cead’, or ‘it is not permitted to’.
  • ‘To affect prejudicially’ is expressed as ‘dhéanamh dochair do’, or ‘do harm to’.
  • ‘Attend’ is expressed as ‘A fhreastal’. Ó Dónaill cites ‘an scoil a fhreastal, to attend school’ and ‘freastal ar léachtaí, to attend lectures’ as examples of ‘freastail’, ‘attend’, in the sense of ‘be present at’.
  • ‘Religious Instruction’ is expressed as ‘Teagasc creidimh’. ‘Teagasc’ is translated as ‘teaching, instruction’ by Ó Dónaill, who cites ‘teagasc ábhair, teaching of a subject’.

Keep Up @ Atheist Ireland.

The Constitutional Rights Of Nonreligious Parents In Irish Schools

Atheist Ireland ✒ The Minister for Education Norma Foley has replied to a letter from Atheist Ireland about the right to not attend religious instruction in schools and a recent anti-abortion video shown in a school. Here is the Minister’s reply and our reply to her.


Letter from Minister for Education to Atheist Ireland

Dear Mr. Nugent & Ms. Donnelly,

Thank you for your letter.

At the outset, it is important to distinguish between Religious Education as an educational activity that deepens young people’s understanding of religions, whatever their background or beliefs, and Religious Instruction, understood as initiating or nurturing young people into a particular religious way of life (sometimes also referred to as faith formation or catechesis). It is not the aim of Religious Education to facilitate Religious Instruction or a type of learning that has as its aim nurturing into a particular religious tradition or set of beliefs.

The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) developed Religious Education Junior and Senior Cycle examination and non-examination syllabuses are intended for students of all faith backgrounds and none. The content prescribed in the syllabuses is intended to ensure that students are exposed to a broad range of religious traditions and to the non-religious interpretation of life.  

Continue reading @ Atheist Ireland.

Minister For Education Replies To Atheist Ireland About Religion In Schools And Anti-Abortion Video

National Secular Society ✒ As a bill to reform collective worship progresses in parliament, Stephen Evans argues that the time has come for lawmakers to recognise that laws mandating worship have no place in modern Britain.


It was a tale of two bishops in the House of Lords last week when peers debated a bill to replace the duty on schools to hold acts of Christian worship with a requirement to provide inclusive assemblies.

The retired Anglican bishop of Oxford, Richard Harries, supported reform of the law, arguing that the present legal situation "simply does not reflect the society in which we now live". The serving bishop of Oxford, Steven Croft, speaking from the bishop' bench, argued that the "present arrangement works well".

The proposed law, tabled by Baroness Burt, would leave faith schools, including those controlled by the Church of England, untouched – and would only apply to schools without a religious designation.

Nevertheless, the bishop, who had only just finished leading prayers in the same chamber, urged his fellow parliamentarians to block it.

Continue reading @ National Secular Society.

Schools Should Be Liberated From The Compulsion Of Worship

National Secular Society ✒ A government minister has said schools are not permitted to replace their legal duty to provide religious worship with non-religious assemblies, leading to criticism from the National Secular Society.


In a letter to the National Secular Society, education minister Elizabeth Berridge said it was "not permissible for a school to apply simply to replace Christian or other religious collective worship with a non-religious assembly".

The letter also said that if the government was made aware that schools weren't meeting the duty to hold worship, it would "deal with it on a case by case basis".

Current legal situation

Schools in England and Wales are legally required to hold daily acts of collective worship which are "wholly or mainly of a Christian character".

And the most recent government guidance on collective worship, issued in 1994, says worship in schools "should be concerned with reverence or veneration paid to a divine being or power".

Many schools currently ignore the law and this has long been de facto accepted by both the Department for Education and Ofsted.  

Continue reading @ National Secular Society.

Schools Mustn’t Replace Worship With Secular Assemblies, Insists Minister

Irish Times ✒ New law requires schools to tell parents arrangements for children not attending class.

 Carl O'Brien  

Most schools are not complying with legal requirements which require them to detail arrangements for students who do not wish to attend religious instruction, according to a new survey.

Children have a constitutional right not to attend religious instruction and the Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018 obliges schools to detail how they will facilitate this in their admissions policies.

However, a survey of a sample of 100 school admission policies by the campaign group Atheist Ireland shows most schools are failing to comply with these legal obligations.

For example, out of 40 Catholic primary schools surveyed, it found that 30 said parents must seek a meeting with the principal to discuss the request to opt out ...

... About 90 per cent of primary schools are under Catholic ownership and spend up to 2½ hours teaching religion – or faith formation – each week.

A recent OECD report shows that Irish primary schools are second only to Israel in the amount of time spent on compulsory religious instruction.

Continue reading @ Irish Times.

Schools Not Outlining Plans For Those Opting Out Of Religion

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)