The UK supreme court ruled last week that religious education in Northern Ireland’s schools is unlawful indoctrination, in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights.
That sounds dramatic but it means surprisingly little for schools.
Its main impact is to hand unionism, and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in particular, a culture war battleground so safe it is more of a playground, fittingly enough.
The ruling does not require any change in the law or challenge the primacy of Christianity in schools, leaving DUP education minister Paul Givan to decide what modest changes might be necessary under existing rules.
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Those rules are similar to the Republic. Every publicly-funded school other than nurseries must hold daily collective worship and provide religious education “based upon the Holy Scriptures”. Parents have a right to opt their children out, although there are no guidelines or funding for alternative arrangements.
The core syllabus for religious education is devised by the four largest churches – Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist and Church of Ireland. Any school can invite religious ministers to offer further instruction. The churches are also responsible for inspecting religious education and collective worship. Stormont’s Department of Education effectively outsources God.
The supreme court has upheld two broad criticisms of this system.
First, the core syllabus is not “objective, critical and pluralistic”, to an extent that amounts to Christian indoctrination.
Second, the right to opt out is so poorly supported it deters pupils, parents and schools from using it, reinforcing the doctrinaire effect.
These matters are easily addressed, as the supreme court made clear.
The core syllabus is entirely Christian apart from a “world religions” section from ages 11 to 14. A little more pluralism would go a long way. Guidelines for opting out can be devised that need little or no extra funding. Schools could be required to set out their alternative provisions in prospectuses, as in the Republic. The department already has all the powers it needs to make the changes.
The three main Protestant churches contested the case, originally brought by a humanist family in Belfast, but they seem sanguine about the outcome. The Catholic Church is especially relaxed, as much of the ruling does not apply to its schools or to integrated schools, due to the complexities of Northern Ireland’s multisectoral education system.
The ruling primarily applies to controlled schools, managed directly by government. They are often referred to as “state schools” and sometimes as “Protestant schools” because the Protestant churches once owned them and still have seats on their boards. Worship and religious education at controlled schools must be non-denominational.
This harmless Catholic-Protestant divide was in evidence in the assembly on Monday when the ruling was discussed. Nationalists had little to say, although it was not a hostile silence. If the Catholic Church is happy so are they, on this subject at least.
Debate otherwise consisted of the three unionist parties trying to outdo each other in their support for controlled schools and the Christian ethos of all schools, while ganging up to accuse Alliance of fanatical secularism. At one point, Givan assured a DUP colleague that calls to cancel nativity plays will be ignored.
Unionists had already been targeting Alliance over sex education and transgender issues in schools. Now the basis of the entire education system has been brought into the same culture war game.
Alliance is walking into the trap. After the ruling, one of its assembly members failed to shut down a BBC question about including witchcraft in the syllabus. Unionists have been ridiculing this ever since.
On Monday, Alliance struggled to explain how it wants a system more inclusive, yet no less Christian – admittedly a tricky message to send.
What is really confounding the centrist party is the resurgence of unionist conservatism. For more than a decade the consensus has been that unionism must reach out to the liberal centre to survive. Alliance’s rapid growth from 2019 cemented this view. But unionism has recently reversed course, led by strong polling for the hardline Traditional Unionist Voice and a belief that Alliance may be alienating its unionist-background voters by being too liberal.
Before its recent growth, Alliance was long associated with churchy liberal Presbyterianism. It still has enough religious members to treat abortion as a conscience issue. Many of its unionist-background supporters will be wondering where that party went.
Change in the wider world is driving people from all backgrounds back to traditional certainties. One Ulster Unionist Party assembly member alluded to this on Tuesday by asking Givan how extremist imams will be kept out of schools, without prejudice to “the vast majority of people who follow Islam”.
The minister fudged the question but it was a telling exchange. Perhaps the most important question the supreme court ruling raises for Northern Ireland politics is whether unionism’s shift to the right will be rewarded.
