Coláiste Ráithín: Protest March on Wednesday, 2nd May 2012 at 14.30
May 2, 2012
Cairde Ráithín, Coláiste Ráithín’s Parents Association and its feeder schools are leading a Protest March to the gates of Dáil Éireann on Wednesday, 2nd May 2012 at 14.30, to demand a new school building for Coláiste Ráithín to open by 2014, which has been a ongoing issue for more than 17 years now. They will meet the 5 Wicklow TDs to get a progress report from them since a joint meeting in February nearly 3 months ago.
Following on from the successful parent’s Protest March to Department of Education & Skills last week, the parents of Coláiste Raithín have sent an Invitation to all Wicklow TDs to come to the steps of the Dáil and tell parents what progress has been made since a delegation of the parents committee met them in February nearly 3 months ago. At that meeting in February, parents explained in detail the plight of this north Wicklow school which needs a new building but which is stuck in a Kafkaesque nightmare of bureaucracy.
Since 1994, management, staff and parents in Coláiste Ráithín have been working towards a new building for Coláiste Ráithín. Seventeen years after the Department of Education first sanctioned a new building, Coláiste Ráithín is still in the same location – on 2 separate sites in Bray town centre with 50% accommodation in portacabins. There are little recreational and no sports facilities. Despite this, the school is one of the best schools in Wicklow and South Dublin and pupils continue to thrive academically.
While the Minister of Education opened two new schools in Wicklow yesterday (Monday, 30th April) there is still no communication of any description from his Department to the most recent correspondence from Cairde Ráithín, nor any sign of movement in this Catch 22 that this North Wicklow school has been caught up in. Coláiste Ráithín is the top non-fee paying school in Leinster outside of Dublin in the just-released 2012 school league tables and in the top ten non-fee paying schools nationwide.
In light of the Minister’s recent roll out of the DES new buildings and extensions programme for the next 5 years and beyond, which does NOT include any provision AT ALL for Coláiste Ráithín, the parents are now taking direct action to protect the valuable education resource in north Wicklow that is Coláiste Ráithín. Negotiations with the Minister and the Department of Education and Skills; Wicklow VEC (the patrons of Coláiste Raithín); Wicklow TDs and Bray Town Council, especially in the last 6 months, have all yielded no real, tangible progress.
The Parents most recent letters to the Minister have gone without any acknowledgement.
On Wednesday, 2nd May 2012 at 14.30, pupils from Coláiste Ráithín and its feeder schools, accompanied by parents from the community of the whole of north Wicklow, will protest at the Dáil Éireann. There will be an opportunity for the Co Wicklow TDs to explain to parents and pupils, why this situation has been allowed to continue for so long.
While there seems to be general agreement amongst all parties that a new school building is required, there seems to be NO URGENCY to resolve this matter. This is particularly worrying for both current and future pupils and their parents, given that a brand new state of the art school is planned for 2014 in Blacklion, Greystones, a distance of only 4 miles from Coláiste Raithín. Such a new school facility can only have a huge negative impact on Coláiste Ráithín, its feeder schools and so its future as it is right in the centre of Coláiste Ráithín’s unique catchment area. Parents are demanding that it is now time to bring this long outstanding matter to an immediate and satisfactory conclusion.
Therefore, in order that a new school building for Coláiste Ráithín be open by September 2014, the committee request the Minister and all TDs to do the following urgently:
– all outstanding issues regarding the current proposed Bray site be determined immediately;
– the Blacklion site be made a default option only to be exercised if the Old Bray Gold Club site is not available immediately;
– guarantee parity of esteem and equality of resources for the only Gaelcholáiste in North Wicklow;
– make the relocation of Coláiste Ráithín into a new school building, to open in September 2014, an absolute priority.
For further information, please contact: Paul Moore, spokesperson from Coiste Cóiríochta Coláiste Ráithín / 086 838 5049 /
pmoore@iol.ie
Members of north Wicklow community can sign the petition in hard copy at Coláiste Ráithín or online at: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/colaisteraithinnewschoolbuilding2014/
