The Primary Schools Survey 2030 is now open for parents to have their say on the future of primary education in Ireland. The survey is designed to get a broader view from the Irish public on the patronage of schools in Ireland.
The survey will be online and some 493,000 households will be invited to take part. The survey will be open until 16th December.
This Government survey follows failed localised schemes which sought to broaden the patronage of schools. In some cases the process became mired in the culture wars with disinformation and scare-mongering around traditional practices such as faith formation and even whether Christmas would be celebrated.
Figures gathered by Education and Training Boards Ireland (ETBI) show that, currently, only 156 of the 3,089 primary schools nationally are multi-denominational, just 5% of all schools. The vast majority fall under the patronage of religious bodies, primarily the Catholic Church.
The ETBI said that data from the most recent Census illustrates a mismatch between the religious beliefs of people in Ireland, and the educational options currently on offer. In the 2022 Census, 31% of people in Ireland said they do not identify as Catholic, with over 14% identifying as non-religious and significant increases in other religious beliefs.
The survey will have a separate strand to gauge the views of teachers and people involved on boards of management. A survey carried out by the INTO earlier in the year indicated that over 60% of primary teachers believed that faith formation should take place outside the school.
However, nearly 40% of respondents, which was based on a representative sample of more than 1,000 INTO members, believed that faith formation should continue in primary schools.
