For immediate release, 15 February 2010
Educate Together the national primary school organization is calling for equality of status between multi-denominational and other faith development programmes taught in national teacher training colleges.
Multi-denominational schools are the fastest growing education sector in Ireland yet training resources for their ethos accounts for only 0.0016% of the estimated annual €10m+ state expenditure on patronage models. The 7 teacher training colleges are funded to prepare teachers for employment in all the country’s 3,200 primary schools. However Educate Together’s Learn Together module is only delivered as an elective option for third year students in just two colleges â 50 out of a 2,400 strong student body!
Commenting on the situation Educate Together CEO Paul Rowe states ‘ We are simply calling for equality of status for training delivery of our ethos module with traditional faith models. The infrastructure is already in place, it just requires a more equitable allocation of training resources’.
In the last three years XX Educate Together primary schools have opened and they now account for over 11,000 pupils across 56 schools. ET hopes to open a further 86 schools over the next five years. Demand for multi-denominational education at primary level is rapidly growing in the face of an acknowledged oversupply of Catholic schools.
Learn Together is the inclusive multi-denominational moral and ethical programme taught in Educate Together schools. Educate Together is a recognised patron body operating schools based on the delivery of ‘equality of access and esteem to children irrespective of their social, cultural or religious backgrounds’. Set up in the 1970s by volunteers and educationalists it is an independent educational charity that is supported by small government grants and extensive private fundraising. See www.educatetogether.ie for further information.
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For further information or to arrange an interview with Paul Rowe contact
John Holohan
Communications Manager, Educate Together
Mob: 087 2035750
