Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

The programme for Government contains a commitment to establish a citizens’ assembly on the future of education and states that the voices of young people and those being educated are central. This week, once again, our system, in the manner in which we teach our children, has been exposed either in the buildings that they are in or in the lessons that they are being taught as being unsuited for purpose. In this instance, what happened was not related to the pandemic but rather to religious institutions and how they are permitted to instruct relationship and sexuality education, RSE, programmes, not according to facts or constitutional rights but according to church teaching and ethos. The particular programme to which I am referring is called Flourish. It was developed by the Irish Catholic Bishops Conference, which has stated that church teaching in respect of marriage between a man and a woman cannot be omitted. Among some of the other harmful issues are preachings against lone parents and the LGBTQI+ community. This is an issue that does not just impinge on children. Speaking at the Irish National Teachers Organisation's annual conference in March, its vice president, Joe McKeown, stated that up to 4,000 LGBTQI+ teachers are hiding their sexual orientation because they feared that their jobs or promotion prospects could be harmed if their school patrons discovered their true identities.

Some 90% of our primary schools operate under the Catholic ethos. Parental choice does not exist and our young people deserve better RSE than we had. The programme for Government contains a commitment to achieving a target of at least 400 multidenominational primary schools by 2030 to improve parental choice but this raises bigger questions regarding the role of church and our education system. Will the citizens' assembly on the future of education consider ways and the extent to which it can suggest solutions or alternatives to religious institutions in our education system.

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