Parents to be asked on alternatives to Catholic-run schools
January 9, 2013
Parents in 39 towns and city suburbs will be asked their views from next week on a choice of up to five alternative patrons to their local, Catholic-run, primary schools.
They include seven Cork and Kerry towns, nine other Munster towns and 12 areas in the Catholic archdiocese of Dublin. But the level of demand for changes to the current system could be in dispute after the interpretation by the group representing Catholic schools of the pilot survey results last month.
Although 25% to 35% of parents said they would avail of a wider choice of patronage if it was available, the Catholic Schools Partnership said this equated to just 5% to 10% of all parents, based on participation rates as lows as 24% in some survey areas.
Following the survey of families in five towns in November, the New Schools Establishment Group proposed that the Catholic bishops offer a school in each of them to multi-denominational group Educate Together. It was the most preferred patron among those who supported a wider choice of schools in Arklow, Co Wicklow, Castlebar, Co Mayo, Tramore, Co Waterford, Trim, Co Wexford, and Whitehall in Dublin.
The expanded survey of parents was to have started today but the Department of Education said patron bodies asked for it to begin next week, rather than this week when schools have just returned after Christmas.
In all 39 areas, the all-Irish schools patron group An Foras Pátrúnachta and the city or county vocational education committees (VECs) have put themselves forward to take over schools currently under Catholic patronage. The National Learning Network, a training division of the Rehab group, is an option for parents in four, and families in four towns can choose the Nigerian-founded Redeemed Christian Church of God as an alternative patron.
Educate Together is offering to be patron to schools in all but five areas, including Carrigaline, Co Cork, where it already has a school. The other Cork towns where parents of primary and pre-primary children are being surveyed are Bandon, Cobh, Fermoy, Passage West and Youghal.
Other Munster towns selected are: Shannon, Co Clare, Killarney, Co Kerry, Carrick-on-Suir, Clonmel, Nenagh, Roscrea, Thurles and Tipperary in Co Tipperary; and Dungarvan, Co Waterford.
They have little or no choice of primary schools, other than Catholic or other denominational schools, but with insufficient population growth to justify new schools being built.
Education Minister Ruairi Quinn has asked the Catholic bishops in the five pilot towns to respond within six months with proposals on how to reconfigure their existing schools to facilitate Educate Together.
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