A father has failed in his claim that his daughter suffered discrimination from her school’s failure to allow her to participate in alternative classes after she opted out of religion classes. The man alleged the school had breached the Equal Status Act on grounds of religion. In a case at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC), he argued his daughter was receiving an inferior education to her sister, who did attend religious education classes. The man told the WRC his daughter exercised her rights under the Constitution as well as the Education Act 1998 not to attend religion class. However, he claimed the school had not complied with a requirement of the Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018 to publish details of its arrangements for any student who had decided not to attend religion class. The WRC heard the school’s admission policy stated a meeting would be arranged with the relevant parents to discuss how such students might be accommodated. The man proposed his daughter should be allowed to attend one of the alternative classes for her year because the content of her religion class was contrary to her conscience. He pointed out his older daughter had been facilitated in […]
