In recent weeks the Minister for Education and Skills, Richard Bruton, has announced that he will seek to abolish the controversial but longstanding “baptism barrier” in the Equal Status Act 2000, which allows primary schools to favour pupils on the basis of religion for admission. As well as spurring vehement debate, this once again casts light on the markedly different logic used in the different education sectors in Ireland.
It is difficult not to see the glaring contrast between this approach and the unforgiving impersonality of the CAO. While primary schools can legally examine the most fundamental aspects of a prospective student and their family’s religious background, universities in Ireland in most cases do not even know the name of an aspiring applicant until offers are accepted. Until the process is essentially finalised, the prospective student is just a number, attached to another more crucial number – their Leaving Certificate points. Places for third-level courses are overwhelmingly distributed according to this metric of exam performance and demand, followed by random selection when these methods prove inconclusive. When public debate turns to the effectiveness of this process, neutrality and fairness are cited as its desirable qualities.
While the CAO probably pushes impersonality to one extreme of the spectrum, primary schools are undoubtedly situated at the opposite extreme. As with most extreme and dogmatic positions, both of them can very legitimately be criticised. There is a vast expanse of middle ground to be found between ignoring all personal characteristics of applicants and stratifying them on the basis of their beliefs about life. Reform is needed on both ends of this dichotomy.
Trinity is already moving towards this middle ground by admitting students to selected courses through a pioneering feasibility study, a process that considers not only CAO points, but also personal statements, relative performance of students compared to their school peers and essay writing. The provisions made for those with a physical or socio-economic disadvantage through the HEAR and DARE schemes are also positive steps towards admitting students based on a more complete picture of who they are.
Removing the baptism barrier may help to bring primary schools to match universities’ tentative steps towards this middle ground.
