This article is from page 12 of the 2011-10-25 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 12 JPG
CLARE’S fastest growing primary school is still awaiting permanent accreditation from the Department of Education, despite being in operation for the last six years.
The Mol an Óige school in Ennistymon will become Ireland’s second Department of Educationrecognised Steiner school if it is granted permanent official recognition later this year.
The school has been operation with year-to-year accreditation for the last three years, which has hampered its efforts to make plans for the future, including for the purchase of a permanent school building.
INTO national president, Noreen Flynn, paid a visit to the school last week to show her support and to officially launch the new school website.
“We have recognition on a provisional basis which is extended year by year. We have had inspectors in from the department and a report has been done up and we are now coming to the end of the recognition process with the Department,” said principal Una Ní Gháirbhith.
“We are very hopeful that permanent recognition would be awarded at some stage this year. The big difference that that would make to us is that we could start looking at having our own school building because, at present, we are at a rented site in rented prefabs. The permanent building is the final piece in the jigsaw.”
Having formed with just 11 pupils in 2005, Mol an Óige now boasts 120 pupils with five classroom teachers and six auxiliary staff members.
“There have been a lot of cutbacks in education in recent times and we did take the opportunity to discuss with Noreen how cutbacks are affecting the school, and the future cutbacks which may be coming down the line,” continued Una.
“These cutback are really going to make a difference to schools all over the country. The problem is that more and more children are coming into the primary school system and, instead of increasing the number of teachers, they are looking at upping the pupil/teacher even more and cutting back in other areas.
“Li ke ever yone else in the countr y, we are just waiting to see how these new cuts will affect t he school. Increasing the st udent /teacher ratio by one st udent doesn’t seem li ke a lot but, when you consider the par ttime teachers and resource teachers who are also counted, it can quickly have a ver y big impact on schools.”
To view the new Mol an Óige website, visit www.steinermolanoigens. org.