VEC encourages parents to compete patronage survey

VEC encourages parents to complete patronage survey


Anton McNulty
antonmcnulty@mayonews.ie

PARENTS of national school children have been encouraged to take part in a survey which will ask them what type of patronage they would like to see running their local primary schools.
Castlebar was one of five towns listed to take part in a Department of Education pilot scheme to be surveyed first on school patronage. Parents of pre-school and primary school children in Castlebar will be asked to complete surveys stating their preferences for the type of school they would like their children to attend.
The VEC’s are one of the bodies who have expressed interest in becoming patrons of divested schools and the Mayo VEC committee urged parents to take part in the survey.
Dr Katie Sweeney, CEO of Mayo VEC, outlined the VEC’s Committee National Schools Programme which provides high quality education for children ‘of all religions and none’. She also added that it provided principals with the administrative support of the VEC which allows them to focus more on education.
Presently 92 per cent of national schools in Ireland come under the patronage of the Catholic Church and the new choice of school patrons for parents was welcomed by members of the Mayo VEC Committee.
Sinn Féin councillor Therese Ruane said there has been a huge change in the diversity of Irish society in the last decade and there was a need for more education choice.
“I encourage parents to fill out the survey and get informed on what options are available and what’s out there. I work with people from different backgrounds and there isn’t a choice,” she said.
Cllr Tereasa McGuire, a National School Principal, said that ‘we live in a new Ireland and must move with the times’ and encouraged parents to go on-line and complete the survey.
Independent councillor Richard Finn welcomed the move saying he could see many benefits involved, including more parental choice. However he said he feared that what they are trying to achieve today will ‘lead to elitism in the future’.
He explained that in England and in the US there was a huge demand among parents to send their children to Catholic schools and that even non Catholics were ‘lining up’ to get their children in to them.
His point was echoed by Ballina Town Councillor, Johnny O’Malley who said that Ireland was primarily a Catholic country and wondered if the views of the majority were supported in the same way as the minority. He cited the incident where the Christmas crib was taken down in Mayo General Hospital and wondered if the case would be reversed and if the views of others would be respected in the countries where people had left to come to Ireland.
Dr Sweeney said she was not against any other model and stressed the VEC were putting forward a model which respects all faiths and none. She added that the view was on the VEC agenda six years ago and will be part of their strategy going forward.

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