The Minister for Education Jan O’Sullivan has stated her intention to repeal a 50-year-old “archaic” rule that privileges the status of religion in schools in January,
Rule 68 reads: “Of all parts of the school curriculum, religious instruction is by far the most important, as its subject matter, God’s honour and service, includes the proper use of all man’s faculties.”
The rule has been marked for removal since a government report was commissioned four years ago and will now be appealed by Minister O’ Sullivan along with any other rules that “don’t speak to the diverse and welcoming nature of our modern school system”, she told RTE.
Minister O’Sullivan Source: Flickr
Opponents of Rule 68 argue that it is an obstacle to allowing schools to welcome and care for children of all religious backgrounds, due to Ireland’s overwhelmingly Catholic religious curriculum.
O’Sullivan has also accepted that there is a need to protect unbaptised children from discrimination in terms of school admissions policies, and that the Equal Status Act has to be amended to reflect a more modern Ireland.
