Biblebelt feature: Reformed school in Northern Ireland must pay its own bills (2/2)

That Northern Irish Protestants are royalists is clear from the Independent Christian School in Newtownabbey, a northern suburb of Belfast. On the wall in the hallway there are collages with crafts about the coronation of Charles III, almost a year ago now.

The 1983 school is one of seven schools to emerge from the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster (FPCU). The administrator of the Newtownabbey school is the Rev. Brian McClung, pastor of the FPCU congregation in the adjacent church building and also chairman of the board of the seven schools. His wife, a teacher for children aged 4 to 11, is in charge of the day-to-day running of the school.

The 41 students of the school can be found behind various doors this Wednesday morning. In one classroom – the same classroom where the 30-minute opening for the whole school takes place every morning – teacher McClung and her fourteen students sit, smartly dressed in a green and blue school uniform with a striped tie. It is quiet; every child has their own program.

Behind another door, students aged 12 to 14 learn physics. The “science room” is equipped with special physics and chemistry tables. Another door gives access to the adjacent church. At the back of the church hall, up a flight of stairs, up another flight of stairs, and there, high and dry in a small workspace, sits a student. At 16 years old, she is the oldest in the school. Nowadays she is busy studying French on her own. Since then, she has taken several so-called A-level exams, which provide access to university.

Part 5 of a series on European Bible Belts. Previous editions covered Finland, Sweden, Germany and Denmark

Parents must be prepared: according to Mr McClung, they pay 177 pounds (more than 200 euros) per child to the school every month. In addition, the school itself must raise 15,000 pounds (17,500 euros) in money annually to pay salaries. Even then, teachers here earn less than half of what they could get in state schools, he says. “Many of our teachers do this work to serve the Lord,” he says.

Religion class

Every five years the school is visited by the inspectorate; the last time was just three weeks ago. This never causes any problems, says McClung. “They always suggest that we should use more modern teaching methods.”

The inspector visited a religious lesson given by the pastor himself. “I had all the students read a verse from 2 Kings. The inspector praised them for their reading skills. My wife told him that in the past fifteen years not a single student had left school with a failing grade in math. He could hardly believe that. On public schools there are many students who have problems with English or mathematics.”

Christian character

Partly because of the costs, not all FPCU members send their children to their own school. Moreover, due to a regulation from the 1940s, state schools in Northern Ireland still have a fairly Christian character. Protestants then transferred management of their schools to the government in exchange for funding and church influence over education.

Mr McClung does not see this as positive. “We pay a price, but we can set our own educational curriculum. We do not teach religious studies as prescribed by the state – completed by the four largest churches in Northern Ireland.” The school therefore provides its own content, with the restriction that only FPCU members may teach the religious subject. However, teachers from other denominations are appointed for other subjects.

Having your own school isn’t just about religious lessons, McClung argues. “Why should our children learn English? To be able to pray and read the Bible. In history lessons it is about the worldview that you impart: the world belongs to God.”

This article was translated by CNE.news and published by Reformatorisch Dagblad on April 18, 2024