Education minister Richard Bruton and state-run post-primary schools are at a distance to an instruction to offer alternative education to students who do not participate in religious instruction, which should be effective from this month onwards.
The issue mainly concerns the 275 schools in the Education and Training (ETBI) sector and is intended to ensure that students who do not want to participate in religious classes are scheduled for another class.
Students already have the right to opt out of religious classes and worship, but may be left in class or sent to another room for supervised study or other non-tuition activities.
When the directive was issued in February, there were allegations that schools would not have the resources to provide alternative education, while the minister was accused of not making a distinction between religious education and the religious education subject that many students take.
ETBI said that it had sought, but had not received, the explanation about the implementation of the change, and its advice to schools was "to maintain the status quo".
After the clearing was received, "the implications will be considered," it added.
Mr Bruton said that every directive should be 'honored', adding that 'inspectors should follow all the paths we need to ensure that schools meet what is needed'.
The Teachers & # 39; Union of Ireland also said that it is awaiting confirmation that, provided it had not imported any element of belief or religious education into its program, the opt-out did not apply to schools offering the religious teaching profession.
As to whether schools could expect an increase in funding, Mr Bruton said that he recognized that schools were under pressure, but that no budgetary decisions had been taken.
Irish Independent
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