Education

16 November 2020

New Atheist Ireland report – Schools are defying new law on admission policies

A new Atheist Ireland report shows that schools are defying a new law on admission policies. Carl O’Brien of the Irish Times has written about this report this morning. Section 62.7(n) of the Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018 requires schools to publish an admission...

14 November 2020

Religious ethos will sabotage any new sex education curriculum

The NCCA is updating the sex education curriculum, but this will not matter if schools can deliver the content according to their religious ethos. They can do this because of the Education Act 1998. Atheist Ireland has raised this issue with the Oireachtas Education Committee...

1 November 2020

Atheist Ireland Submission on Primary Curriculum

Atheist Ireland has made the following submission to the NCCA on the Draft Primary Curriculum Framework. Contents 1. Introduction 2. Constitutional and Human Rights of Atheists 3. The 1999 Primary School Curriculum 4. The Draft Primary Curriculum Framework 5. The Recommendation from the Forum on...

14 September 2020

Letter from ETBI to Atheist Ireland

The ETBI has written the following letter to Atheist Ireland in response to our letter and legal opinion about religious instruction and related matters. ETBI-responseto-legal-opinion

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2 September 2020

Schools are obliged to use existing funding to supervise students

Publicly funded schools are obliged to use their existing funding to supervise students outside the religious instruction class. The recent Legal Opinion that Atheist Ireland obtained confirms that schools cannot refuse to supervise children outside the religious instruction class on the basis that they do...

29 August 2020

Atheist Ireland submission to UN Human Rights Committee

Atheist Ireland has made the following submission to the UN Human Rights Committee. It is about what questions the UN should ask Ireland during its next questioning under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. 1. Introduction to Atheist Ireland 2. Recommended questions 3....

16 August 2020

Legal opinion on the Constitutional right to not attend religious instruction

Atheist Ireland has obtained a legal opinion from Barrister James Kane on the Constitutional right to not attend religious instruction under Article 44.2.4. The Irish Times has reported on it here. You can read the full Legal Opinion here. The legal opinion covers the right...

8 August 2020

The State religion course disrespects atheists and humanists

The state Religious Education course developed by the NCCA disrespects atheists and humanists. The course was recently updated and introduced into second-level schools in September 2019. Despite superficial changes, the updated version is no better than the previous one. It is not an objective course...

7 August 2020

Why secular schools are good

There are two reasons why State schools should be run on a secular basis. And a secular school is not the same thing as an atheist school. A religious school teaches that a god exists, an atheist school would teach that no gods exist, and...

5 July 2020

The Rights of the Child in Irish schools

The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child will soon be questioning Ireland again. Atheist Ireland, the Evangelical Alliance of Ireland, and the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community of Ireland have sent this joint submission to the UN Committee. Contents Introduction Summary of Questions Cluster...