This article is from page 16 of the 2013-04-09 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 16 JPG
CLARE teachers spoke out at the INTO Congress against potential plans to close and amalgamate small schools, which at its most extreme would see the closure of 59 schools in the county.
Labasheeda school principal Liam Woulfe described teachers and parents in these small schools as being concerned, stressed and terrified regarding the mixed messages they are receiving.
“The teachers and communities of these schools are condemned to a stressed-filled limbo looking towards September 30 annually, looking towards the realisation of the ever increasing but receding magic number [to ensure the school’s ongoing existence] determined by the Minister with almost no semblance of consultation,” he told delegates among which there was a strong Clare presence.
Newly-elected vice president of the INTO and Mullagh school principal Sean McMahon explained that these schools, which “are a central part of life in Ireland” must be seen in a new light by the Minister for Education and Skills.
“The proposals in the recent budget will see the destabilization and potentially the closure over time of one third of all small mostly rural primary schools. Amalgamations and the closure of some very small schools have always been part of the education system,” he said.
“The Minister’s policy on small schools is fundamentally flawed, misguided and devoid of planning.
“What is needed is a coherent, long-term and resourced strategy for sustainable schools into the future. Instead, the last two budgets are leading to forcible closure or amalgamation,” added the West Clare teacher who is also a member of the INTO Task Force on Small Schools.
He said that there needs to be an al- ternative to forced closure and pressurised amalgamation.
Marie Gold is a teacher in Flagmount National School and reminded delegates that education “is not merely a cost to the State; it is an investment”.
“There is a growing body of research that small is beautiful when it comes to school size, especially for very young children.
“Educationally it makes sense for young children to be taught in a small, interdependent, family-like community before having to negotiate the challenges of a larger community in later life,” she said.
Secretary of West Clare INTO Brid Hanrahan spoke of the “hands off approach of the department of Education, particularly in circumstances where they are decreasing enrolments in small schools as a consequence of diminishing population treads, but offering no information, advice, assistance or incentives to schools to consider school reorganisation”.