Taoiseach saves small schools

Taoiseach saves Mayo schools


Kenny’s opposition key to report’s rejection

Áine Ryan

TAOISEACH Enda Kenny gave the thumbs-down to a Government report that recommended the amalgamation of 32 small schools in Co Mayo, it has emerged. Small rural schools in the county’s western seaboard would have been the biggest losers with nine proposed mergers in Erris and nine in Achill.
Carrakennedy NS, near Westport, where Mr Kenny once taught, was also on the list. With 35 pupils on its roll in 2014-15, that school is located just 5.4km from Drummin NS, another small school south of Westport.
Scrapped earlier this year, the ‘Value for Money Review of Small Primary Schools’ report, which was commissioned by the last government but only published in February last,  identified 200 small schools throughout the country for mergers in its 2013 publication.  
The second highest number, 32 or one-in-six of these schools, was in Co Mayo, while 43 such schools were identified in neighbouring Co Galway, according to The Irish Times yesterday (Monday). All of the identified Mayo schools were under Catholic patronage and were either one or two-teacher schools. They were identified under criteria which meant they were within an 8km radius of another school, which had fewer than three teachers.
The Irish Times article stated that Mr Kenny’s ‘personal opposition to [the proposed closures or amalgamations] is understood to have been key to the Government’s rejection of the report’.

More costly
Interestingly, the report noted: “There is no evidence that small schools provide any greater educational benefits for their pupils, which would offset their costs.”
It said that one to three-teacher schools are significantly more expensive to run on a per pupil basis than larger schools. “The estimated per-pupil operating cost of a one-teacher school (€6,870) is more than twice that of a pupil in a 16-teacher school (€3,214).” It also stated that the closure of schools would not necessarily reduce the sense of community.    
The report, which recommended a minimum primary-school size of four teachers, including a principal, was published just days after Minister for Education Jan O’Sullivan said the recommendations would not be adopted and, instead announced new measures aimed at sustaining small schools, particularly in isolated areas.

INTO perspective
“FROM the INTO perspective the whole small schools situation has been a major issue. Principals do not want to be the ones to close a school. When [former Minister for Education] Ruairí Quinn initiated the cuts to small schools in 2011, I remember [after the protests] he said on radio ‘We are going to leave it to the schools’. The decision to close a small school, though, puts a lot of pressure on the teachers,” said Vinny Duffy, INTO branch secretary for Mayo and Sligo.  
He told The Mayo News last night: “We want the department to have a definite policy about amalgamations and to become more involved. There should be strict guidelines as the process is very onerous on teachers, parents and boards of management. Obviously, the decision is ultimately with the board of management of the school in consultation with the patron, the bishop of the diocese, which suits the department. In a lot of cases these amalgamations are amicable enough, but in other cases, they are not and the bishop may appoint a mediator.”

Fianna FΡil welcome
EVEN though the report was commissioned by the last Fianna FΡil-led government, Deputy Dara Calleary said last night that he welcomed this government’s decision to scrap its recommendations.
“I welcome the fact that this government shelved this report and that the Taoiseach is finally becoming aware of the needs of his constituency. The decision taken by this government’s former Minister for Education, Ruairí Quinn to change the special pupil-teacher ratio for rural schools did more to undermine these schools than any report. The Government did subsequently adjust this after a series of protests,” Dara Calleary said.He observed that ‘if implemented the report would have had a major impact in Mayo’, conceding also, that it would have been ‘intensely opposed’ within the Fianna FΡil party.
 Coincidentally, the recent closure of Currane NS was highlighted by the newly appointed Cathaoirleach of  Mayo County Council last week. Independent Cllr Michael Holmes said: “Whatever about the loss of the post office or the garda station in a village, when you see the national school going, that’s the beginning of the end for that rural area.”