Why the word Secular is harming those who want progressive education

One of the most unhelpful outcomes of the INTO Congress was their use of the word “secular” which they used in their survey on religion in schools and consequently since. Here’s why:

The word “secular” has many definitions and it’s not clear which one the INTO are using. In their documentation, they seem to use it interchangeably with multidenominational, non-denominational and multibelief. They are subtly different.

Multidenominational is a term mainly used in Ireland. Up until recently Educate Together were the only multid providers and the term was almost invented to ensure the organisation could work within the parameters of the Irish Education System. Schools had to ensure their characteristic spirit permeated throughout the school day. Religion had to be taught. So Educate Together cleverly found a way to do this by teaching Religious Instruction outside of school time, thus fitting in the system and catering for the multitudes — (zero or many.)

In Multidenominational schools, children are taught about different belief systems including religious ones and non-religious ones. No one belief system is promoted over others and people’s personal religious values are respected. All beliefs are respected equally.

Non-Denominational is often confused with Multidenominational and they have many similarities. However, technically an Interdenominational school is Multidenominational (as it teaches more than one faith as truth). However, there technically are no non-denominational schools in Ireland.

Multibelief is a term made up by the Education and Training Boards for their Community National Schools when they opened in 2009. Their plan was to segregate children into faith/belief groups and teach each one separately. When they changed this, the term multibelief continued but, in effect, it’s a meaningless word that is basically a synonym of Multidenominational. Sometimes even if words mean the same thing, some sound more palatable to the majority and multibelief somehow seems softer than multidenominational.

Secular is a word that could mean any of the above in Ireland but it is generally understood to mean no mention of religion AT ALL. A secular system would curtail the rights of anyone in education having the freedom to express their faith, e.g. wearing a crucifix, or hijab, and it could be argued that it simply promotes a single world view, much like denominational schools promote a single world view.

I don’t believe when the union used the word secular, they thought about this. These are the things we need to make clear because they create huge confusion. This could be heard today during the Congress when teachers were speaking out about the “secularisation” of the primary school system. In much the same way, words like “segregated” (did you shirk at that?) and “indoctrination” are words that can be polarising, the word secular is in that bracket. In reality a secular education system is one where people have freedom of religion but people also have freedom from it. It’s a system where everyone wins — the religious, the non-religious and those in between.