Correspondence

Belfast Telegraph

Dear Sir/Madam,

In her attempt to defend religious indoctrination in State schools (July 21), Ms McQuaid invokes the European Convention on Human Rights. That is a very foolish argument for her to use because the Convention is intended to safeguard all faiths and outlooks, not just the One True Religion which she thinks all schools should inculcate. Ms McQuaid is opposed to pluralism and learning about other religions and outlooks, whereas pluralism is exactly the basis on which the Convention operates. State schools which tried to indoctrinate the One True Religion as Ms McQuaid desires, would have to trample on the Human Rights of other believers.

What is the One True Religion that Ms McQuaid thinks all schools should inculcate? "The Christian Faith". Unfortunately, there is no such single religion. The apartheid which exists in our schools here at present, separating Protestants from Catholics throughout their formative years, is clear evidence of at least one major split in Christianity. And a brief survey of kinds of churches will reveal numerous sects, all with their own version of that Truth which Ms McQuaid claims for them. Thus we have Methodists, Presbyterians, Roman Catholics, Church of Ireland, Free Presbyterians, Elim Tabernacle, Mormons, Brethern, Jehovah’s Witnesses, etc. Which one has the Truth? Suppose it is the Mormons, what will children from the other sects do when their school starts indoctrinating the One True Religion?

The most radical solution to this problem is that arrived at by the USA and France. They decided that the way to respect all faiths and outlooks was to keep religions out of the State schools entirely. Since they felt that it is not the business of the State to decide which religion is the best, then State schools would have to be neutral on this issue. Parents who wished to inculcate a religious viewpoint (and most of them did) were left to do so either in Sunday schools, or in the home, or in private day schools, outside the State system completely.

"State schools should be neutral with respect to religious beliefs" is the conclusion reached by a group of prominent philosophers in ‘Religious schools: the case against’ (ISBN 0901825212). Neutrality means that either you have no religions in schools, or you have all of them. There is a case to be made for the latter course on the grounds that modern communications and travel bring people into contact with a wide variety of religious traditions. To understand only one’s own local religion in a world of global communication and travel is to be pitifully narrow-minded and backward–looking.

Ms McQuaid would like our education system to continue unchanged, but the social realities of sectarian division constitute a powerful argument for change. Here in N. Ireland we have had 80 years of religious indoctrination in schools and a religiously segregated system of education. It has been a complete failure. This society is not united in Christian fellowship and blessed with Christian neighbourliness; instead, it is riven by sectarian antagonism and bigotry. The Troubles were only the most violent expression of a sectarian division which runs right through the whole society. More indoctrination is not the answer. A truly liberal education is. We need more broad-minded, tolerant people who can see beyond the confines of their own local traditions, not another generation of narrow-minded bigots who regard all other beliefs as a threat.

Les Reid