Proposing the report of the Board of Education to the General Synod of the Church of Ireland today, the Bishop of Derry and Raphoe, the Right Revd Ken Good praised the Church’s role in education.

“Church-related schools in Britain continue to be among the most popular and over subscribed schools of all” he said. “Many parents clearly prefer to send their children to them, and it is not difficult to see why: the evidence shows again and again that where religious values are accepted as normative, discipline is often better, behavioural boundaries are more clearly understood, and a cohesive sense of school community is established, not least by acts of corporate worship, then the educational, personal and social outcomes are consistently better.”

He continued by suggesting that “parents can see that where education is rooted in Christian values applied with sensitivity and creativity, children learn the lessons of greatest worth – honesty, integrity, friendship, loyalty, interdependence, tolerance, faithfulness in relationships, care for others and care for God’s world.”

Reform and demographics were cited as serious challenges for those involved in education in Northern Ireland. The uncertainty surrounding the Review of Public Administration was making forward planning in education even more difficult, according to the Bishop, and he pointed to the 32,000 surplus primary school places and the 16,000 surplus secondary school places that will arise in 2012 as a threat to teachers’ jobs and to the viability of certain schools.

“The size of the task confronting the Minister for Education in attempting to square these apparently ‘unsquarable circles’ is immense, and each of us, no doubt, has our own opinion as to whether Ms Catriona Ruane has tackled the task as helpfully, as collegially or as sympathetically as she might have done. Because of the way things have developed, levels of trust, unfortunately, are significantly less than they might have been.”

The Dean of Belfast Cathedral, the Very Revd Houston McKelvey (Connor), expressed his view that “the reason we have so much suspicion about the current administration is that there is a process of secularisation pointed disproportionately at the Protestant side.”

Dean McKelvey went on to welcome yesterday’s comments made by the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, in her address to the General Synod about diversity and expressed his hope that the Minister of Education in Northern Ireland might learn from her statements.

The Dean of Down, the Very Revd Henry Hull (Down), suggested that the Board of Education should not oppose academic selection because of the “social uplift” provided by grammar schools.

The Revd Gillian Wharton (Dublin) disagreed on this point, recalling her experience as a chaplain and teacher in the Republic of Ireland and what she said was the damage and trauma suffered by children who were sent to boarding schools in the Republic of Ireland after failing their 11-Plus exams.

“Please, please, I say to you question academic selection and the pressure it puts children under” she said.

Speaking on the topic of denominational education in the Republic of Ireland, the Bishop of Meath, the Most Revd Dr Richard Clarke, said “the place of religious education must be crucial to what we look for in our schools. We must look at ethos, and also as the vexed question of numbers.”

“Denominational education in a city school might require something very different to denominational education in a rural school.”

“I do hope we will engage in the discussion on denominational education constructively, and that we will not settle for a single, monolithic answer as we are in a fluid environment” he said.