This article is from page 37 of the 2013-12-31 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 37 JPG
APRIL began with bad news for Clare primary schools with the news that 60 schools could face closure or amalgamation. According to a leaked Department of Education, small school across the county face an uncertain future.
The ‘Value for Money Report’ recommends the all primary schools should have a minimum of 80 pupils and four teachers. This, according to Irish National School Teacher’s Organisation (INTO) Clare Executive Sean Mc Mahon puts almost 60 schools in Clare at risk of closure, which is 50 per cent of all the primary schools in the county.
According to the most up to date official Department of Education figures for the school year 2011-2012, there are 59 rural schools in Clare with less than 80 pupils.
When asked about the proposal and its impact on the county’s primary education ahead of the INTO congress meeting in Cork in April, Mr McMahon described the suggestion as an April Fools joke.
“Considering today is April 1 and we hear news that a Minister is seek- ing to close down 50 per cent of the schools in Clare and hundreds across the country, it must be an April Fools joke,” said the Mullagh School Principal who is tipped to be elected that next national vice president of the primary teachers union.
“A Value for Money Report is a very narrow way to determine the future of rural schools and their value to the community. It does not take into account location or distance students must travel for an education,” he added.
Should the report get the support of the Minister for Education and the Department of Education and Skills it will mean the closure of more than 1,000 schools across the country, 600 of which have less than two mainstream teachers.
A spokesperson for the Department of Education said however that the report’s findings did not mean it would be Government policy to close schools with fewer than four teachers.
Information from the report is emerging as teachers from all over the country meet for their traditional trade union congresses this week.