Catholic schools fear end of fair employment exemption could weaken their ethos

Bishop of Derry, Donal McKeown, told the Stormont Executive Office committee that he supported ending the exception which means that schools are exempt from legislation outlawing religious discrimination.

But he also said that Catholic schools wanted to maintain the right to ask a teacher if they supported the ethos of the school without being accused of being discriminatory.

The committee is currently examining the Fair Employment (School Teachers) Bill, which aims to end the exemption which allows schools to use religious background or belief in deciding who to recruit to teaching posts.

Bishop McKeown, who is chair of the Catholic Schools’ Trustee Service (CCTS), said he was not aware of any situation where a teacher had failed to be appointed to a teaching job in a Catholic school because of their religion or political opinion.

He said: “The trustees of Catholic schools and CCMS (Council for Catholic Maintained Schools) are and always have been opposed to discrimination on religious or political grounds.

“Our objective has only ever been to assess whether a candidate understands and supports the Catholic ethos, the identity of the school.

“We consider that the exception in the 1998 order is no longer appropriate or required.

“That legislation worked on the assumption that everyone was Catholic or Protestant, that is a bizarre assumption for any political decisions in 2022.

“Catholic schools are increasingly diverse and welcoming to all children.”

The bishop added: “However, the trustees and CCMS will want to have the right to promote our ethos and will want to ensure that the ethos and values of Catholic education will continue to permeate those schools.

“We will wish to negotiate the post-veto arrangements, but I think we have the right to expect that all teachers understand and are committed to the ethos of Catholic schools in which they wish to teach.

“We are looking to develop something that is fit for purpose to ensure that people who choose to access a particular form of education are not disadvantaged and that Catholic schools are able to ensure that someone joining their school are in support of the ethos of the school.”

Gerry Campbell, chief executive of the CCMS, added: “We strongly believe that Catholic education and faith-based education has a very strong role to play within the Northern Irish education system and there is a place for Catholic schools, there is a place for faith based education.

“We will continue working with this committee and with other political stakeholders to ensure that we are able to protect the ethos in our Catholic schools, which have been a shining light and a shining beacon over the past 40-50 years in terms of the high quality of education.”

Committee chairwoman Sinead McLaughlin asked what impact the end of the exemption would have on Catholic schools.

Bishop McKeown said: “I think since we have never used it, it won’t have any effect.

“Our only concern is that this might be used as a Trojan horse in order to try to remove any ability of Catholic schools to say that they are different, in terms of their ethos, from other sectors.”

Ms McLaughlin asked if the ethos of a Catholic school would be negated if the bill went through.

Bishop McKeown said: “No, as long as boards of governors are entitled to say ‘have you any idea of the particular ethos of this school and are you prepared to support it?’

“If this is removed it would not affect us in any way, as long as it is not a Trojan horse to ensure that we are not able to ask a teacher to support the ethos of the school and risk being accused of being discriminatory because of that.”