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Griffeen Valley Schooling crisis
- 27th March 2003
As Spring enters its second month parents in Lucan
begin to panic.
In September 2002, a voluntary group of parents
opened an Educate Together school. This group received over 700
children’s names to put on a first-come-first served pre-enrolment
list. Today only 24 students can be facilitated, with 2 teachers
working from a cramped Scout Hall in Lucan Village. There is clear
sense of anxiety felt by parents due to the desperate need for
schooling facilities in the Griffeen Valley area. According to
councilor Derek Keating “The Crisis in the deficiency in
education accommodation in the Lucan area in Dublin has reached
alarming heights as time is now running out for Griffeen Valley
Educate Together. It is clear that Griffeen Valley Educate Together
will be without premises from June 2003 and therefore must be
on the site from June 2003 if classroom accommodation is to be
available for this school by Monday 1st September 2003.”
Families are now being faced with the decision to
leave Lucan in order to get their children into primary schools;
Karen Lynott originally from Lucan said;
“In June 2002, my family moved out of Lucan
because I could not get my eldest daughter a place in any local
school in Lucan. Her name had been down in all of the local
schools in my locality since she was 6 months old and this did
not secure a place for her. I was aware of a schools crisis
in Lucan from about 2000 as I saw so many houses being built
but did think that schools would soon follow as all children
have this basic right to a primary education. I joined other
parents campaigning for the Griffeen site school. We had been
on to Mary Harney on numerous occasions and she was giving us
as much information as she could about whether this school was
going to happen for September 2002. Up until June 2002, we had
no guarantees that the school was going to be there and my daughter
still did not secure a place in any school in Lucan. Finally,
I gave up trying, and decided to move out of Lucan in order
to secure a place for my child in school. I moved to Leixlip
and had no problems getting a place for my daughter in the local
school.”
To date a three-acre site owned by a prominent building
developer has been designated for a primary school in Griffeen
Valley and Planning permission was achieved in 2002 for a 16 classroom
temporary school development. Negotiations for the purchase or
lease of the site between Department and the land developer is
on going yet there is no guarantee for the parents that the Department
will provide the funds for either leasing or buying the site this
year. Clearly these temporary schools are bleeding public funds
through renting buildings and pre-fabs. According to government
sources this costs the taxpayer €17 million per year in total.
This has been going on for some eight to ten years for buildings
that will never be owned.
To accentuate parents problems Griffeen Valley Educate
Together National School has only been given temporary recognition
by the Department. This means that the Department will provide
75% of the funding for the school instead of 95% for permanent
schools. Voluntary groups of parents have been told that they
will have to source temporary accommodation for up to 10 years
before the state will be in a position to supply a permanent school
building yet no landlord will provide a lease for more than 4
years 9 months, as tenants then gain rights. In order to keep
their school open the parents must engage in ongoing fund raising
for the day-to-day running costs. This also means that once the
Department has acquired or leased the site, the cost of carrying
out site development works and providing the temporary buildings
on site could be in the order of €700,000.00. The Department
bizarrely considers that the parents should contribute a significant
element of this amount.
As many as 15 out of a total of 28 multi denominational
schools in Ireland are also without permanent accommodation.
Facts and figures about Lucan
- According to a pre-statement by the central statistics
office, Lucan is the fastest growing small area at electoral
division level.
- Lucan-Esker recorded the highest increase in
intercensal population - its population almost trebled since1996
to reach 21,785 in 2002.
- According to the South County Dublin Enterprise
Board economic profile, South County Dublinis likely to be the
main focus for growth in housing in Dublin over the period of
the Strategy. “The projected population increase over the
coming years is expected to be influenced significantly by both
in and out – migration. The population structure of the
County is unique and differs significantly from the national
characteristics. This is particularly so in relation to the
Lucan / Clondalkin areas. The most significant difference is
the high proportion of the population under 25 and especially
in the school leaving age groups.”
Facts about Educate Together Schools
Educate Together schools operated by the member
associations of Educate Together have a distinct ethos or governing
spirit. They are:
- Multi-denominational i.e. all children having
equal rights of access to the school, and children of all social,
cultural and religious backgrounds being equally respected
- Co-educational and committed to encouraging all
children to explore their full range of abilities and opportunities
- Child centered in their approach to education
- Democratically run with active participation
by parents in the daily life of the school, whilst positively
affirming professional role of the teachers
- Whilst the concepts of child-centredness and
co-educationalism are now widely accepted in Irish primary education,
what distinguishes the Educate Together schools is their hard
work in developing a culturally inclusive and democratic ethos.
This has pioneered unique approaches to inclusion of minority
opinions and faiths in the Irish context.
- Today there are 28 schools, 15 of which are in
the greater Dublin area.
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