The Editor’s viewpoint in today’s Belfast Telegraph gives its support to views in a report in the newspaper yesterday of Rev Ian Ellis, Secretary to the General Synod Board of Education – N.Ireland, regarding the sharing of schools and especially in rural areas. The Editorial and the report follow here.
The Editorial column published today Saturday, 13 August 2011 states:
Education remains a vexed subject in Northern Ireland, and any suggestion for change is almost bound to create arguments.
It is against this background that a senior Church of Ireland cleric, the Reverend Ian Ellis, has suggested that schools run jointly by the Protestant and Roman Catholic churches could provide a shared Christian ethos in which children of both main traditions could be educated together.
The Reverend Ellis is secretary of the Transferor Representatives Council which helps to oversee the provision of education in Protestant schools, and he is a well-respected figure.
Children from both denominations already share educational resources in many places, but the Reverend Ellis is suggesting the creation of schools with an overarching Christian ethos, within which there would be provision for the accommodation of differences.
In essence there could be separate teaching of the Roman Catholic sacraments and also provision for Protestants to receive an education in association with their core syllabus. Part of these proposals result from the current policies where rural schools are being closed through lack of numbers, and the pupils are being transported to larger centres.
It could make economic sense to amalgamate smaller Protestant and Catholic schools and to share resources while preserving the authentic local character of educational provision.
The Reverend Ellis is careful to present his proposal as an idea which has worked elsewhere, and one which might be worth considering here. It would require more detailed study, but it is a suggestion that may have real merit. Shared education will not solve all our community ills, but it can only help to develop greater understanding between our children who are our citizens of the future.
Last year the First Minister Peter Robinson criticised the current system as a “benign form of apartheid”, which led to a knee-jerk reaction from the Catholic Church about the defence of its particular ethos.
This is an important debate, and the intervention by the Reverend Ellis deserves serious consideration.
Certainly there’s a need for new thinking, outside our familiar educational strait-jackets.
Cleric suggests jointly-run schools
The report published in yesterday’s Belfast Telegraph stated:
Schools run jointly by the Protestant and Catholic churches could help to build a shared future in Northern Ireland, a senior cleric said.
They already share classes and other resources but the proposal would see institutions run with an overarching Christian ethos but separate teaching for Catholic sacraments and other doctrinal differences, the Rev Ian Ellis said.
The Church of Ireland minister is secretary of the Transferor Representatives’ Council which helps oversee Protestant education, and said jointly managing schools was an option.
“It is a thought that has worked elsewhere. It is an idea that is worth considering,” he said.
He added that too many rural schools were being closed and their pupils bussed to towns when amalgamating Protestant and Catholic centres could preserve local education.
“Would it be worth thinking of a creative solution and preserving a school in the local community jointly managed by the Protestant and Catholic churches? What we were hoping to see was that we can preserve a Christian faith ethos within a jointly managed school.
“What we would have to try and establish is a solidly Christian ethos promoting Christian values but there would be streams where Catholic children receive preparation for the sacraments and non-Catholics receive an education in keeping with the core syllabus they have reached in other policies and we pose the question could it be a potential solution for the future?”
A study for the Integrated Education Fund found strong backing for integrated education in supporting a shared future. Currently Catholic and Protestant schools collaborate in delivering some classes, like ICT, but the management structures remain separate.
Last year Democratic Unionist First Minister Peter Robinson sparked a confrontation with the Catholic Church when he described the current education system in Northern Ireland as “a benign form of apartheid”. He objected to the state funding church schools.
The Catholic church has defended religious ethos as adding value to teaching. Catholic Cardinal Sean Brady has described the comments as a stark warning to all those who respect diversity and the rights of parents. “It seems strange that people in Northern Ireland are being told that they should accept a lower standard of rights and freedoms than they would have if they lived in Britain, Scotland or the south of Ireland,” he said.