How many points do you need in your Leaving Cert to become a teacher? It depends on your religion.
Every year on my social media feed, I highlight how Dublin City University (a supposedly secular university) allows Protestants to have lower points for entry to their Teacher Training degree than every other faith group to become primary teachers. This year they need 76 fewer points than Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Atheists and anyone else.
As you can see from the graph, the gap between becoming a primary school teacher is consistent enough over the last few years. Protestants require 70 fewer points than every other faith group to enter their training.
Of course there are historical reasons for it in the past but the latest arrangement was agreed in 2016, hardly a different time in history. In 2019, I recorded an episode of my podcast explaining the history and why it now needs to stop. There are many historical reasons for the bind between church and state in Ireland when it comes to education but this is one of the worst abuses of all.
Some will argue that it’s only right for Protestants to be able to teach in Protestant schools. In fact, that is the argument for it.
You’ll have to listen to the podcast to get the full history because this is a short article but in 2016, the Minister for Education at the time, Ruairi Quinn amalgamated a Church of Ireland Teacher Training College (CICE) with a Catholic one (St. Patrick’s College) and merged them into Dublin City University.
The CICE amalgamation with St. Pat’s hinged on a temporary arrangement until 2018 to allow this priority to continue — Protestant students would still be able to have separate entry on the old scheme. However, Richard Bruton extended the arrangement and it gets extended every few years, probably without anyone thinking very much about it.
The whole argument that faith schools needing their own faith teaching in these schools is problematic for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, it’s only extended to one faith, (I never got that advantage because of my Jewish background, nor has any Muslim, never mind atheists.)
Secondly, one of the biggest arguments for not divesting/reconfiguring schools from Catholic ethos is that one doesn’t have to be Catholic to teach in a Catholic school. All one has to do is to agree to uphold the ethos. Why would it be different for Protestants (or anyone else?)
None of this stands up to the slightest bit of scrutiny. It only works well for those it benefits.
The solution, of course, is to do away with it. It’s another bite out of the elephant but a significant one. It’s one area where denominational education directly discriminates against adults. I believe it would take one court case and it would be an easy win. However, we’re several years into this and nobody has done anything about it. Where is the Catholic student that just missed out by a few points? It all goes back to the same apathy that sees churches still in control of 95% of primary schools.
