Sir, – I am writing in response to Alan Coakley’s letter about religious ethos in schools (”Removing religious ethos from schools is fundamentally illiberal”, Letters, May 30th).It appears to me that the continued presence of the Catholic church in state schools is “fundamentally illiberal”, as opposed to the other way around.In the status quo, 90 per cent of primary schools are church-owned despite being funded entirely by the State. There is little in the way of choice for parents in this matter. However, a child need not be baptised to be admitted.Despite this, secondary schools are still permitted to discriminate on the grounds of baptism. As 50 per cent of secondary schools are oversubscribed, this can lead to many parents feeling pressured to baptise their child to secure a place.Given that liberalism is the philosophy of liberty, freedom of religion and separation between church and state, I ask how can anyone seriously assert that any of the above can be considered “the very essence of liberalism”, let alone moral?While I have no quandary with those who want their child to receive a Catholic education, that choice should not be forced upon all of us. Personally, I feel my child would be better served by instruction in other matters. For instance, a rudimentary lesson in liberalism. – Yours, etc,HARVEY CALLAGHAN,Kells,Co Meath.