This article is from page 8 of the 2011-11-22 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 8 JPG
THE DAYS of teaching in prefabs in Quin may be coming to an end, after the local primary school got the green light for an eight-classroom extension.
Management at Scoil na Mainistreach has been notified that the school will be extended, with the project likely to be completed in 2013.
The news that the eight rooms and ancillary accommodation are to be added comes after years of campaigning by management, after the existing building became too small for the growing school population.
Currently there are 259 students in the school and this is expected to rise to more than 300 over the next five years as projected enrolments will rise further, based on numbers of births locally.
There are nine classrooms in the school, four of which are prefabs. There are nine mainstream teachers, along with three learning support staff.
School principal Anne Fitzpatrick said management was “delighted” to receive the letter from the Department of Education, outlining the go ahead for the project.
“We have no clarification at present on how the grant will operate. We are basking in the delight on something that has been going on for so many years. We have been campaigning for a long time,” she said.
It was initially proposed in 2001 that the school should be extended, given increasing enrolments.
Between 2005 and 2009, enrolments increased by more than 70 per cent and according to the census figures for this year, the population has increased by almost 40 per cent over the past five years.
“The projections are it will continue to grow over the next four to five years,” said Ms Fitzpatrick. “Enrolments are coming in at 40 each year. Baptisms are coming in at 40 each year. Three of the classrooms are totally unsuitable. They are inadequate in size,” she said.
Last year, two new classrooms were built on and while this was welcome, overall, it was not sufficient to cater for the numbers of pupils.
“In 2009, the board made a decision there would be no more temporary accommodation on site. We had been arguing for a long time that tempo- rary accommodation is not a cost effective solution,” said the principal.
“They expect it to be in place in 2013. We would be anxious to move ahead as quickly as possible to move on site for 2013. It is an absolute necessity. Even though we were slightly surprised, we are delighted that the department sees the absolutely necessity for this,” she said.
“There is gong to be a lot of hard work. The board (of management) has been outstanding, led by Daragh Hassett. We would like to give him credit for that. We have put a lot of hard work into this,” she said.