Public consultation gets underway on teaching of religion in primary schools
Parents, teachers and members of the public are being encouraged to give their views on how religion is taught in primary schools.
A public consultation on the issue has been launched by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment.
Under the proposals, a new beliefs and ethics class could be introduced to coincide with traditional religion classes.
President of the Irish National Teachers' Organisation Emma Dineen said they welcomed the move, but had some questions about where it would fit into the curriculum.
"The issue for us is where this fits in the school curriculum," she said. "It may solve some of the overload and time issues that we are facing because we already have a very crowded curriculum."
However, she also said people "may perceive this as being seen through a faith lens and that may not work".
Director of the Iona Institute David Quinn has criticised the teaching of religion in Catholic schools as an "epic failure".
He said: "Most teenagers come out of school with practically no knowledge of their faith at all, and they don't practice…The failure to teach religion properly is on a scale as epic as the failure to teach Irish."
