This article is from page 11 of the 2007-09-25 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 11 JPG
THIS Wednesday, the Mol an Oige primary school in Ennistymon take their fight for Department of Edu- cation recognition to Dublin where they will engage in a protest as the Dail reconvenes.
Parents and pupils will make the trip to Dublin in a bid to keep the 1s- sue at the front of the mind of Minis- ter for Education, Mary Hanafin.
“We’re simply trying to highlight the plight in terms of our application to open a new multi-denominational primary school in Ennistymon,” ex- plained Mol an Oige spokeswoman, Mary Fahy.
“We intend to give a letter to our Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, to remind him of the public commitment he made to our school during his elec- tion campaign when visiting Kilrush earlier this year.
“With all the recent media attention on two new multi-denominational schools in the Dublin area, we as a parent group are asking that the Min- ister for Education grant children in rural areas the same right to choice in education.”
Two years ago, the group began an application process to open a multi- denominational school implementing the National School Curriculum us- ing the Steiner model of education.
But because of a lack of commit- ment from the Department of Educa- tion to recognise the school, parents of those attending the school have had to organise educational matters.
“Despite having met all the crite- ria and complied with the process laid out by the Department of Edu- cation and despite having received two positive recommendations from the New Schools Advisory Commit- tee, we still await an answer from the minister.”
Minister for State Tony Killeen says he has been in regular contact with the Minister for Education about the issue.
“T’ve tried to establish exactly what is required of Mol an Ojge for the school to be officially recognised by her department,” he told