Educate Together Public Meeting in Dungarvan – 27th May 2004

pressetEducate Together schools are set up and developed by groups of parents in local communities, who wish to send their children to a national school that is multi-denominational, child-centred, co-educational and democratically run. The schools are recognised by the Department of Education, are non-fee paying and operate under the same rules applying to all national schools.

Educate Together, the representative body for multi-denominational education in Ireland will hold a public meeting in Dungarvan on Wednesday 9th June. All are welcome to attend and representatives from Educate Together will attend on the night. The meeting will be held in Lawlors Hotel at 8pm Educate Together Schools have been set up as a direct response to the demands of thousands of parents who wish to send their children to schools that respect the rights of all social, religious and cultural backgrounds.

Educate Together schools are obliged in law to provide equality of access and esteem to children and are committed to building a national network of schools that provide a legally binding commitment to children, teachers and parents to support their cultural, religious and social identities.

There are currently 31 Educate Together schools in Ireland, of which 15 are outside the greater Dublin region. Educate Together acts as patron of new schools and represents all its members in negotiations with the Department of Education and Science and other national organisations. Educate Together is the fastest growing sector in primary education in Ireland. Four new schools are due to open this September in Dublin 15, Limerick, Tullamore and Mullingar.

Educate Together are determined that the option of a genuinely inclusive, rights-based school will become available to all families in Ireland in the future and that no child should be an outsider in our education system. Paul Rowe, CEO, Educate Together.