Strong Demand for New Educate Together Schools in 2008 Shows Urgent Need for Government Action

Over the past two weeks a number of communities have held successful public meetings and formal launches of enrolment lists for new Educate Together schools. This process, which would normally take place in the month of January, has been carried out early this year in response to the extensive demand for new schools for 2008.

Pre-enrolment lists for new Educate Together schools have already been launched in Carlow, Greystones and Skerries. At some of these meetings, the numbers of enrolments necessary to meet the criteria for new school recognition have been exceeded by a substantial margin. Public meetings and pre-enrolment launches are taking place in the coming weeks in Belmayne, Carrigaline, Midleton and East Galway. Further meetings in other areas are being planned for January.

These developments underline the strong demand for new Educate Together schools from these local communities and the scale of provision that is necessary to meet the growth of the primary school population in the next 5 years. In Skerries last Saturday, 92 children were registered for places on the first day, with no less than 30 registered to start next year. In Greystones, Co. Wicklow, where the lists were launched the week before, the figures already total 256. A element of concern in both these areas is that there is already a significant bulge in demand for places in 2011 for children born in the last two years.

This early surge in demand for school places four years ahead underlines the scale of development in the primary system that is necessary in the next 5 years.

Paul Rowe, CEO of Educate Together, stated

"Earlier this year, the Minister announced that her Department's projections indicated that the school going population will increase by approximately 100,000 pupils by 2011. The early results of our recent pre-enrolment launches substantiate this projection. It is important that the government and all concerned understand the scale of development that will be needed to meet this increase and the strain that this will put on the system.

"100,000 pupils represent a sudden 22% increase over five years in a system that has seen declining numbers for many years. Even at the current maximum class size guideline of 27, this represents 3,700 extra classrooms or 230 new 16 classroom schools. If the Minister is to succeed in reducing the maximum class size to 25, the figures increase to the equivalent of 250 new schools or 50 new schools per year.

"Our concern is that there will be a dramatic surge in the years 2010 and 2011 and many instances of local school place crises. There really is no space for government inaction on this issue. There is an urgent need for a focussed effort with considerable funding to ensure that the new schools required can be brought on-stream in time for these children's educational needs. In our opinion, this should be a matter of the highest government priority. Failing to properly provide for the education of such a large section of the next generation will seriously damage the country's future social and economic prosperity.

"What is urgently required is:

The reform of planning legislation to ensure the transfer of sites for new schools as a condition of planning permission for housing estates.
An urgent programme of site acquisition and school building
A realistic system of grants to enable school patrons to set up the schools needed in a professional and efficient manner
A complete overhaul of the system of funding for the Boards of Management of new and developing schools."

ENDS