This article is from page 9 of the 2011-02-15 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 9 JPG
STUDENTS from north Clare and south Galway have been granted a one year reprieve before school transport services are overhauled drastically in the area.
The Department of Education has announced that Gort Community School and Seamount College in Kinvara will continue to have a “joint catchment area” in parts of north Clare and south Galway for the 2011/2012 school year.
It is as yet unclear what will happened to services after that with a spokesperson from Gort Community School saying that the battle to retain the service will continue.
The reconfiguring of services follows a decision to open Seamount College to male students. The school traditionally operated a joint catchment, which allowed students from all areas to take advantage of school transport to either school.
Should this arrangement be cancelled it would create a situation where new students would not be able to travel to school with their older siblings and would split a number of families between each school.
It is also estimated that the change in the services could result in a 25 per cent reduction in the amount of students attending Gort Community School. A spokesperson from the schools parent’s association claims this will have a drastic effect on the standard of education in the area.
“If this goes through Gort Community School will use a lot of its services because of the drop in numbers, with two medium-sized schools instead of one big school and one small school, neither school will be able to offer things like woodwork and metal work,” said the spokesperson.