Schools for all

I was amused by Martin Conroy’s sophistry in which he compares the “Catholic only” employment policy of some schools with a vegetarian charity’s right not to employ a carnivore (Letters, 9 August).

This is erroneous on two levels. Firstly, what the carnivore puts on her plate at dinner time has nothing to do with her suitability for a job. Why would such a question even come up at the interview? In contrast, the Catholic interviewing panel, by Mr Conroy’s reckoning, would have every right to ask personal questions about the private beliefs of the job applicant, which may be quite irrelevant to her ability to teach maths.

Secondly, why should a parent or a teacher have to look elsewhere because they don’t subscribe to one sect of one religion?

Schools are for all our children, not gang huts for a minority with fragile supernatural beliefs.

Neil Barber

Edinburgh Secular Society

Saughtonhall Drive

Edinburgh

Martin Conroy demonstrates the dwindling number of adherents to his religion by claiming “only three-fifths of teachers in maintained schools and colleges are Catholic”.

He would no doubt go on to explain they are unsegregated because of the high number of Muslim children who attend. And no doubt, as the Muslim population increases, these adherents will also be clamouring for their own schools.

With unelected religionists taking their seats on every education board in Scotland to make a wide range of decisions affecting education, it’s not difficult to see how the politics of sectarianism are successfully maintained.

It’s time to bite the bullet and examine religious privilege in Scotland.

Garry Otton

Scottish Secular Society

Broughton Street

Edinburgh