Simon Lewis
@simonlewis.ie
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8/8 If the Department was genuinely interested in understanding what parents want, they'd have included the full spectrum of responses, including apathy.
Instead, they've designed a survey that will tell them what they want to hear, not what's actually true.
Instead, they've designed a survey that will tell them what they want to hear, not what's actually true.
November 30, 2025 at 11:59 AM
8/8 If the Department was genuinely interested in understanding what parents want, they'd have included the full spectrum of responses, including apathy.
Instead, they've designed a survey that will tell them what they want to hear, not what's actually true.
Instead, they've designed a survey that will tell them what they want to hear, not what's actually true.
7/8 This isn't just a technical survey design issue. It's ideological. The Department seems unable to accept that for most families, school ethos is simply not a priority.
They'd rather force an opinion than acknowledge indifference.
They'd rather force an opinion than acknowledge indifference.
November 30, 2025 at 11:59 AM
7/8 This isn't just a technical survey design issue. It's ideological. The Department seems unable to accept that for most families, school ethos is simply not a priority.
They'd rather force an opinion than acknowledge indifference.
They'd rather force an opinion than acknowledge indifference.
6/8 If someone genuinely doesn't care whether their local school is Catholic, multi-denominational, or anything else, they now have to pick an option that suggests they do care.
The results will overstate how much ethos actually matters to people.
The results will overstate how much ethos actually matters to people.
November 30, 2025 at 11:59 AM
6/8 If someone genuinely doesn't care whether their local school is Catholic, multi-denominational, or anything else, they now have to pick an option that suggests they do care.
The results will overstate how much ethos actually matters to people.
The results will overstate how much ethos actually matters to people.
5/8 By not including "I don't care" as an option, the survey forces people into expressing opinions they don't actually hold. It manufactures engagement where there might be apathy.
And that's a problem for the data.
And that's a problem for the data.
November 30, 2025 at 11:59 AM
5/8 By not including "I don't care" as an option, the survey forces people into expressing opinions they don't actually hold. It manufactures engagement where there might be apathy.
And that's a problem for the data.
And that's a problem for the data.
4/8 Parents choose schools based on location, reputation, whether their friends' kids go there, the car park situation. The religious ethos is rarely the deciding factor, and for many it's not even a consideration.
November 30, 2025 at 11:59 AM
4/8 Parents choose schools based on location, reputation, whether their friends' kids go there, the car park situation. The religious ethos is rarely the deciding factor, and for many it's not even a consideration.
3/8 We've known for years that most people are not religious. We've known that children are being discriminated against in classes. We've known that opt-out arrangements are inadequate.
And yet, nothing has fundamentally changed. Why? Because most people are fine with it.
And yet, nothing has fundamentally changed. Why? Because most people are fine with it.
November 30, 2025 at 11:59 AM
3/8 We've known for years that most people are not religious. We've known that children are being discriminated against in classes. We've known that opt-out arrangements are inadequate.
And yet, nothing has fundamentally changed. Why? Because most people are fine with it.
And yet, nothing has fundamentally changed. Why? Because most people are fine with it.
2/8 The truth is, most people don't care about the ethos of their local school. I know that sounds harsh, but the evidence is all around us.
If parents genuinely cared deeply about religious ethos, things would have changed decades ago.
If parents genuinely cared deeply about religious ethos, things would have changed decades ago.
November 30, 2025 at 11:59 AM
2/8 The truth is, most people don't care about the ethos of their local school. I know that sounds harsh, but the evidence is all around us.
If parents genuinely cared deeply about religious ethos, things would have changed decades ago.
If parents genuinely cared deeply about religious ethos, things would have changed decades ago.
1/8 When you design a survey, you're supposed to capture the full range of responses people might actually have. But this survey assumes everyone has strong feelings about school ethos.
What if they don't?
What if they don't?
November 30, 2025 at 11:59 AM
1/8 When you design a survey, you're supposed to capture the full range of responses people might actually have. But this survey assumes everyone has strong feelings about school ethos.
What if they don't?
What if they don't?
14/ The real issue is not whether churches should continue to play a role in society, but whether that role should continue to be so dominant that most children never get to experience anything else.
November 29, 2025 at 1:47 PM
14/ The real issue is not whether churches should continue to play a role in society, but whether that role should continue to be so dominant that most children never get to experience anything else.
13/ Rather than there being a rush to secularism in our schools, the opposite is the truth. The system remains almost entirely faith based, and any movement towards genuine choice has been slow, limited and hard won.
November 29, 2025 at 1:47 PM
13/ Rather than there being a rush to secularism in our schools, the opposite is the truth. The system remains almost entirely faith based, and any movement towards genuine choice has been slow, limited and hard won.
12/ It also lands on teachers who must pretend to be missionaries to keep their job. As I often say, the system is built on a group of non-believers sending their children into a group of non-believers whose job it is to make these children believe.
November 29, 2025 at 1:47 PM
12/ It also lands on teachers who must pretend to be missionaries to keep their job. As I often say, the system is built on a group of non-believers sending their children into a group of non-believers whose job it is to make these children believe.
11/ But the cost of this narrative is not abstract. It lands on children. Almost every family in the country is still funnelled into a denominational school regardless of their beliefs, their preferences or their circumstances. You cannot defend choice when choice barely exists.
November 29, 2025 at 1:47 PM
11/ But the cost of this narrative is not abstract. It lands on children. Almost every family in the country is still funnelled into a denominational school regardless of their beliefs, their preferences or their circumstances. You cannot defend choice when choice barely exists.
10/ Yet the narrative persists. Why? Some of it is fear of change. When you have had near full control of a national system for generations, even modest movement can feel like a loss. Some of it is deflection. It is easier to warn of imagined threats than to address reasonable calls for reform.
November 29, 2025 at 1:47 PM
10/ Yet the narrative persists. Why? Some of it is fear of change. When you have had near full control of a national system for generations, even modest movement can feel like a loss. Some of it is deflection. It is easier to warn of imagined threats than to address reasonable calls for reform.
9/ This gap between rhetoric and reality is not a small detail. It is the whole story. If we are witnessing a rush, it is the slowest rush in history. What is described as a threat to faith based schools is, in practice, a glacial diversification of what has been a near total monopoly.
November 29, 2025 at 1:47 PM
9/ This gap between rhetoric and reality is not a small detail. It is the whole story. If we are witnessing a rush, it is the slowest rush in history. What is described as a threat to faith based schools is, in practice, a glacial diversification of what has been a near total monopoly.
8/ Since 2011, when the supposed rush started, there's been roughly 30 schools opened or transferred to multidenominational patronage. Since 2023, only one school reconfigured from Catholic to Educate Together and it made history - it was the first Catholic school to hand over.
November 29, 2025 at 1:47 PM
8/ Since 2011, when the supposed rush started, there's been roughly 30 schools opened or transferred to multidenominational patronage. Since 2023, only one school reconfigured from Catholic to Educate Together and it made history - it was the first Catholic school to hand over.
7/ It was only in 1978 when the very first multidenominational school opened in Ireland and forty-seven years later, there are only around 150 multidenominational schools. That's 150 out of roughly 3,200.
November 29, 2025 at 1:47 PM
7/ It was only in 1978 when the very first multidenominational school opened in Ireland and forty-seven years later, there are only around 150 multidenominational schools. That's 150 out of roughly 3,200.
6/ And despite the claims there are zero non-denominational (or secular) primary schools in Ireland at all. Hardly a rush.
November 29, 2025 at 1:47 PM
6/ And despite the claims there are zero non-denominational (or secular) primary schools in Ireland at all. Hardly a rush.
5/ There are ten counties with only one multidenominational school. In fact, there is only one county in Ireland with more than 8% of their schools under multidenominational patronage.
November 29, 2025 at 1:47 PM
5/ There are ten counties with only one multidenominational school. In fact, there is only one county in Ireland with more than 8% of their schools under multidenominational patronage.
4/ When the Patronage and Pluralism Forum was established in 2011 to try and establish some sort of choice for families that weren't Christian, there were six counties in Ireland without a single multidenominational primary school. Today there are still three counties without one.
November 29, 2025 at 1:47 PM
4/ When the Patronage and Pluralism Forum was established in 2011 to try and establish some sort of choice for families that weren't Christian, there were six counties in Ireland without a single multidenominational primary school. Today there are still three counties without one.
3/ I often hear commentators claim that our primary schools need defending against a rush to secularism. It's an interesting claim when 95% of primary schools in Ireland remain under religious patronage, down from a lofty 96% since 2011.
November 29, 2025 at 1:47 PM
3/ I often hear commentators claim that our primary schools need defending against a rush to secularism. It's an interesting claim when 95% of primary schools in Ireland remain under religious patronage, down from a lofty 96% since 2011.
2/ My favourite claim this year was a picture of a tree on sale in Tesco, labelled something like Winter Pine Tree. The usuals went crazy telling us to boycott Tesco… but not before they'd cropped out the bottom of the photo, which had in giant letters: Merry Christmas!
November 29, 2025 at 1:47 PM
2/ My favourite claim this year was a picture of a tree on sale in Tesco, labelled something like Winter Pine Tree. The usuals went crazy telling us to boycott Tesco… but not before they'd cropped out the bottom of the photo, which had in giant letters: Merry Christmas!