Mayo’s first Educate Together school opens in Ballina

Mayo’s first Educate Together school opens


Taoiseach attends launch

Áine Ryan

THE PLURALISM of the Educate Together ethos was highlighted by Taoiseach Enda Kenny at the opening yesterday of Mayo’s first such school, at Newtownwhite, near Ballina.
This is the first Church of Ireland school in the country to be divested under a Government scheme which supports the transfer of schools from the patronage of the Catholic Church.
The only other schools to be divested under the scheme are the transfer and merging of two Catholic schools in Basin Lane, in Dublin city, last year.
 “This is an important day in the education system. It’s very important that our children, the next generation, be raised in an ethos that gives them a sense of values, principles, ethics, environment, of issues about human rights and humanity,” said Mr. Kenny.
“When they grow up they will play their part in a world that will be changed utterly. We hope that Newtownwhite in its own way, as well as the four other Educate Together schools opening today, will be a bright light in the evolving system of education that we have in Ireland,” Mr Kenny said.
Five other Educate Together schools open this term in Dublin’s Malahide-Portmarnock, Sandymount-Ballsbridge areas, as well as in Knocnacarra, Galway, Trim, County Meath and Tramore, County Waterford.
Speaking at the Newtownwhite opening yesterday morning (Monday), Catherine Boland,  the newly-appointed Principal, said: ‘It is quite clear that Educate Together and Newtownwhite was an ideal marriage, as much of the Educate Together ethos already existed here in the inclusive environment of Newtownwhite. In the diverse society in which our children are now growing up the philosophy of ‘learn together to live together’ is a necessary one.”

demand
Demand for Educate Together schools has risen in recent years supporting a primary school patronage survey, commissioned in 2012, by the former Minister for Education, Ruairí Quinn, which recommended alternative patrons for 23 out of 38 towns studied throughout the country.
The survey revealed that both Ballina and Westport needed Educate Together schools, while an earlier pilot study identified that county town, Castlebar, also needed one. It involved parents of pre-school and primary school children and was part of Minister Quinn’s response to the Forum on Patronage and Puralism in Primary Schools.   
Educate Together’s Chief Executive, Paul Rowe, said at yesterday’s opening in Newtownwhite that:
 “This is a great day for parents in the Ballina area, who finally have the choice of an Educate Together national school. We want to ensure that parents in every county in Ireland have this choice, and as the first Educate Together school in Mayo, and the first school where patronage is being directly transferred while keeping the school open, this is an important step”.
A report in yesterday’s Irish Times, stated that the divestment process ‘is being hindered by unexpected legal complications, including an absence of paperwork between the State and religious authorities over title to land’.

More www.educatetogether.ie