Is the school around the corner just the same?
A disturbing look at Irish schools

Change seems to be the order of the day in Irish schools. The whole educational system in Ireland is undergoing a radical transformation - a new education act, a network of centres to re-educate the nation's teachers, and a new curriculum to equip our children for the new Europe. The traditional national school, once so highly regarded, is now considered rigid, sectarian and favouring the advantaged. The model school of the future will be child-centred, attentive to the needs of the whole person, and a reflection of modern Ireland at "ease with itself ".

The churches have agreed to modify their long-standing influence on the primary schools. This has not changed their obligation to guarantee that those schools, to which their authorities act as patrons, teach the faith shared with the parents choosing the school for its religious character. Nor does it change their duty to ensure that any courses, programmes and methods taught therein be in accord with the doctrines and practices of such patrons and such parents. Indeed the Dept. of Education has agreed to this in recent negotiations. Secondary schools too must teach their chosen faith in its integrity.

A new Education Act gives the Minister of Education control over every other aspect of school life, something that never existed up to now. The Dept. of Education and the NCCA are redesigning the curricula for primary and postprimary schools. At the same time a network of teachers centres is retraining teachers to implement the new programmes. Religious patrons will need support in testing any area of possible conflict between such innovations and parental rights of conscience.

Some of these innovations are based on sound educational principles and have been well tested elsewhere. Yet, other changes touch on the very nature and purpose of education, and raise serious questions and doubts. Increasingly, the school seems to be entering areas that used to belong to parents, sometimes exclusively. These courses - under the heading of the all-embracing Health Education - are aimed at forming the emotions, core values and behaviour of children. In some countries educationists have justified this by pointing to the break-up of the family. They believe that the school must become the primary source of values and beliefs as well as equipping the young to become useful citizens of tomorrow.

Teachers are now trained to form the emotions and values of students, especially in the area of relationships and, since our society is defined as pluralist, the school's approach is based on a secular humanism that treats religious beliefs as private and optional. Under all - encompassing Health Education, the school's main aim is to foster the growth of self-esteem, rather than the acquisition of rational skills. These new courses include Social, Personal and Health Education (SPHE), Civics and Politics; one of the modules within SPHE is Relationship and Sexuality Education (RSE).

This huge shift in the purpose and methods of Irish Schools has largely taken place without debate; on the contrary, it seems to have been determined by committees of experts and professional administrators. There is much evidence that some of these programmes:

1) have negative consequences for some children, or at best do little positive good,

2) lead to a serious clash with the core moral values and religious beliefs of parents

3) leave children open to increased peer pressure to choose certain lifestyles at the expense of their academic and disciplined studies,

4) do not lead to more ordered and literate habits of mind,

5) create anxiety in children who are required at a young age to scrutinise their selves and do so in group sessions,

6) contain specific opinions on sensitive issues such as population control, the nature of the family, and sexual questions, that often run counter to the beliefs of the parents.