Race to run new schools hots up
March 12, 2012
Contenders reveal plans to reform second-level curriculum.
Ruairi Quinn, the education minister, will have a new player to consider when he decides on the patronage of a group of post-primary schools, writes Kate Butler. Educate Together, who have already proved popular with parents in primary schools, has thrown its hat into the ring as a prospective patron for six of the 14 secondary schools which will open in 2013 and 2014.
The organisation will face stiff competition from county Vocational Education Committees (VECs), religious groups and charitable trusts, such as the Church of Ireland and the Edmund Rice Schools Trust. An Foras Patrunachta will vie for three Irish-language schools.
Educate Together has been around since the mid-1970s, but has only recently started bidding to move into the post-primary sector. In 2010, it competed against Wexford VEC to become patron of Gorey Community College, but struggled to convince people to trust a system which is untested at second-level. The VEC was appointed patron after the Department of Education consulted parents at feeder primary schools on the merits of both parties.
Once viewed as less academically inclined, VEC schools have improved. This is partly due to the amalgamation of many technical colleges with single-sex schools, and the move by the vocational system into the primary school sector. Re-branding has also changed perceptions.
There has been criticism of the chequered performance by schools in the vocational system with calls for an alternative. Last year, Quinn recognised that Educate Together met all of the criteria for post-primary school patrons. The organisation received a shot in the arm last August when it was invited to consider becoming co-patron, with Co Dublin VEC, of a school in Lucan-Clonburris.
A post-primary school in Lusk is the next one to open, with a decision on patronage expected before the summer, and Co Dublin VEC and Educate Together have outlined below what they have to offer. VECs make up 15% of the top 400 schools in our league tables, with nine in the top 100. There are currently 60 Educate Together primary schools which were established by volunteer groups of parents.
THE SUNDAY TIMES
