14 second-level schools scheduled to open by 2014
August 5, 2011
MORE than a dozen new second-level schools will begin classes for the first time in 2013 and 2014, mostly in the greater Dublin region.
The first will open next month in Gorey, Co Wexford, with Co Wexford VEC as patron, and Co Galway VEC will be patron to a second level school opening in Doughiska in 2013.
The Department of Education has now written to prospective patron bodies seeking applications to set up schools in 14 areas, with 1,000-student schools needed for 2013 in Claregalway, Co Galway; Lusk, Co Dublin; Naas, Co Kildare; and Navan, Co Meath.
A year later, schools for up to 1,000 pupils will open in Ashbourne, Co Meath; Drogheda and Dundalk, Co Louth; Maynooth, Co Kildare; west Blanchardstown, Balbriggan (an all-Irish gaelcholáiste); and Mulhuddart in Dublin. A school to cater for up to 750 students in Greystones, Co Wicklow, will also be needed for September 2014, as will two 500-place all-Irish second level schools in Dundrum on Dublin’s southside and for the Carrigaline area south of Cork city.
The department announced arrangements to select patrons for new second-level schools in June and groups or individuals who want to be patrons to these new schools must apply by mid-November.
Educate Together, which is patron to more than 50 multi-denominational primary schools, said having a standard, transparent process to decide their patronage is good news for parents campaigning for second-level Educate Together schools.
“It is especially positive that this process will take parental demand and the need for different types of schools into account,” said head of education and network development, Emer Nowlan.
Education Minister Ruairi Quinn granted recognition to Educate Together to become a second-level patron earlier this year.
This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Wednesday, August 03, 2011
