Local fears over plans for rural schools amalgamation

Roscommon would be one of the worst-affected counties if plans to amalgamate primary schools with less than 50 pupils go ahead. Currently there are 41 schools listed within Roscommon that have less than 50 pupils (or less than two teachers), with six of those schools in the Athlone/South Roscommon area. There are three South Westmeath schools on the list. There are fears that if the amalgamation plans go ahead, rural areas could lose the lifeblood of its community. The Value for Money (VFM) review of all schools with less than 50 pupils has been established by the Department of Education to examine whether they represent value for money. The review comes after the McCarthy Report identified significant cost savings that could be achieved by reducing the overall number of schools through amalgamations and mergers. A deadline for affected schools and parents to make submissions on the VFM review passed last Friday, but many schools in the locality were unaware of this opportunity to make a submission. The Westmeath branch of the teachers' union, the INTO, is meeting in Mullingar tomorrow (Thursday) to discuss the amalgamation issue. Some schools, including Moyvore NS in Ballymore, managed to make submissions before last Friday's deadline. Principal Inez Kenny said that if the review is taken to its extreme conclusion, and the McCarthy Report recommendations implemented, then a swathe of rural schools could be "wiped out", with hundreds of teachers losing their jobs. "We only managed to get our submission together at the last minute, because another teacher showed us an advert on the INTO website," Ms Kenny said. "It seems like there's some kind of hidden agenda. Why were they asking schools to send a submission, without having any kind of open debate or notification beforehand?" The submission sent in by the Moyvore school described small schools as "central to rural Ireland", and outlined the range of activities pursued at the school. "In our submission didn't send an audit in an economic or financial sense," she said. "Instead, we highlighted how important the school is in the local community, and its impact on the well being of children. "This school was built in 1945, so it's not exactly energy efficient, but there's so much more to it than that." The Department of Education said that among the issues that will need to be taken into account are the impact of school closures on dispersed rural communities, parental choice, the availability of diversity of school provision and the additional cost of school transport. "There are no plans to undertake an immediate large-scale programme of small school closures at this time. The exception to this is small schools where the question of closure would arise in the normal course under the current sustainability limits. These will continue to be dealt with in the same way and such schools may be closed if the numbers reduce over time to an unsustainable level," said a department spokesperson. Local schools with less than two teachers/less than 50 pupils: (2010 figures) Clonown NS, Athlone Camcloon NS, Ballydangan Carrick NS, Curraghboy Lismoil NS, Curraghboy Scoil Ronain, Castlesampson, Bealnamullia Scoil Naomh Eoin, Lecarrow Drumraney NS, Drumraney Boher NS, Boher, Streamstown Moyvore NS, Ballymore