1. Citizens to Separate Church & State (CSCS)

2. Inequality in Primary Education A Human Right of the Child Abnegation Lies at the Heart of the National School System in Ireland Irish Times report on Ireland before UN Committee on Rights of the Child, Geneva, Jan 2016

3. Citizens to Separate Church & State, founded in 2015, is a lineal successor to The Campaign to Separate Church & State (1987). Dick Spicer and Dr. Mike McKillen are the co-founders and spokespersons It was founded to lobby against the 35 th Amendment to the Constitution (Age for presidency) on the basis that the government was proceeding with this amendment without first amending Article 12.8 (religious oath sworn at installation of President in Dublin Castle) www.cscs.ie Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CSCS-Citizens- to-Separate-Church-State-1614337508800868/https://www.facebook.com/CSCS-Citizens- to-Separate-Church-State-1614337508800868/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/CscsIrelandhttps://twitter.com/CscsIreland

4. Many Primary Schools in Ireland, that are state-funded, are discriminating against some children on the religion/belief ground Why? Many have morphed into explicitly faith-based schools It is now a #GE16 issue

5. Every child has a constitutional right not to be subject to discrimination on the religion/belief ground – a human right Our Constitution trumps practices and legislation Ireland as a state-party has international treaty obligations in human rights arena The ‘Rules for National Schools (1965)’ and accompanying ‘Circulars’ have no statutory basis – successive Ministers for Education were acting ultra vires because they never enacted them as a Statutory Instrument as required by Statutory Instruments Act, 1947 Roman Catholic schools, without exception, mix the periods of religious instruction/faith-formation throughout the school curriculum contrary to our Constitution – Art. 44.2.4

6. 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. “affect prejudicially” OED definition: ‘causing prejudice; detrimental or damaging’ It is a given from this that any child who does not wish to receive religious instruction/faith-formation is constitutionally entitled to be absent from the syllabus content/timetable period when it is being imparted.

7. How is this constitutional right to be given effect? National Schools under Roman Catholic patronage are failing to separate the periods of faith-formation/religious instruction from the rest of the curriculum (Rule No. 68: ‘a religious spirit should vivify the whole work of the school’) so there is a child’s human rights’ abnegation here. This separation is demanded by Rule for National Schools No. 69: (2) (a). “No pupil shall receive, or be present at, any religious instruction of which his parents or guardians disapprove. (b). “The periods of formal religious instruction shall be fixed so as to facilitate the withdrawal of pupils to whom paragraph (a) of this section applies”. (5). “The periods of formal religious instruction shall be indicated on the timetable” but it is being ignored right across the land by RC schools.

8. Rescinding Rule #68 - Circular #9 2016

9. Rule No. 54. (2). “The timetable must show:- (a)The times for religious instruction and secular instruction”; In practice the majority of National Schools under RC patronage are unable or unwilling to make provision for this separation required by our Constitution and the Rules. No spare teachers to undertake separate supervision No spare classroom available If religious instruction is interwoven with secular subjects then how is withdrawal to be effected in any event? Removing a child from the classroom who does not wish to receive this religious instruction identifies him/her as ‘different’ from peers (‘affect prejudicially’) A religious spirit vivifies the whole school

10. The solution is for the State to require as a condition of continuing funding of National Schools that: The religious patrons give a binding commitment that Article 44.2.4 will be upheld Rules 54 & 69 implemented properly and any integrated curriculum will be rescinded In effect, CSCS is calling on the State to revisit the original National School system by adhering to the precepts contained in the Stanley Letter of 1831 that established the system of truly National Education. Neighbourhood schools right across the land within walking distance of every pupil and open to all irrespective of religious belief or non-belief.

11. We need to reclaim the Republic for 2016 What better way to commemorate that event than by transforming our predominantly faith-based schools into National Schools open to all. Revolutionary? No! It has been done before!

12. The Stanley Letter (1831) “They will require that the schools be kept open for a certain number of hours, on four or five days of the week, at the discretion of the Commissioners, for moral and literary education only; and that the remaining one or two days in the week be set apart for giving, separately; such religious education to the children as may be approved by the clergy of their respective persuasions. They will also permit and encourage the clergy to give religious instruction to the children of their respective persuasions, either before or after the ordinary school hours, on the other days of the week”.

13. Jan O’Sullivan (28/02/16) “Earlier today I rescinded Rule 68. A circular has been published on the Department website accordingly. The Education Act of course continues to provide for the patron to determine the ethos of a school. But Rule 68 was a symbol. A symbol of our past, and not our future. The language in the Rule was archaic. And I’m glad it’s gone. I have also today directed Department officials to begin to identify other Rules for rescinding – it is anachronistic for us to still look to a set of rules drafted in 1965, many of which will have been superseded by curricular or legislative changes”. - See more at: http://www.education.ie/en/Press-Events/Speeches/2016- Speeches/SP2016-01-28.html#sthash.7JV4WpoR.dpuf