Schools need to work together to secure future development; Minister

Catriona Loughran • Published 25 Feb 2010 10:21 0 Comments

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Education Minister Caitriona Ruane has appealed for schools in Fermanagh to "work together" in finding the best solution towards the redevelopment of schools here.

The Sinn Fein Minister was speaking to the Impartial Reporter prior to a North/South Numeracy Conference held at the Lough Erne Golf Resort, Enniskillen yesterday (Wednesday).

She said falling enrolment numbers in Fermanagh was the main reason why capital is not being invested in redeveloping schools in the county and encouraged all schools to "work together in bringing forward a better curriculum."

"Since I came into office in 2007, we've had a huge number of rebuilds 39 in total costing somewhere in the region of £260m and we have refurbished 16 primary schools. Schools that will get the go ahead are schools like Lisbellaw that are in bad need of refurbishment and have increasing pupil numbers. But there are less pupils here in Fermanagh than ever, that's why we have brought forward policies such as the sustainable schools and entitlement framework to best see how we can deal with this problem. What we are saying is this, it's not good enough that children and young people in Fermanagh are not getting access to subjects and choice in order to get the best start at post-primary level and we need to change that," she said.

In 2008, the Minister launched the Schools' Modernisation Programme, which aimed to deliver the construction of almost 70 new schools in the next four years through the Department of Education's new major capital works framework.

But plans have been stalled on the £15m Devenish College rebuild project until the future of post-primary schools in the controlled sector are reviewed.

"Our Department is working very closely with the post-primary sector in the Catholic sector and also the controlled sector and we need to start coming together, we need to start developing a curriculum together and working together in order to get the investment needed. We are working to invest in counties and we want to invest in Fermanagh. But we need to be realistic in that we can't build schools in every corner of the county, we currently have schools with empty desks in Fermanagh and Fermanagh is suffering demographic decline more than any other county and we need to address this first and assess our plans and working together is the only way we can solve that," she said.

She also appealed to Fermanagh grammar schools, who set and continue to set their own transfer examinations this year, that they are "failing children" and urged them "not to continue."

She said strongly, "State-sponsored academic selection is gone, not even phased out, it's gone. Transfer 2010 is the Departmental policy and that's the only policy we are operating now and that's the permanent solution. Children should not be tested at 10 or 11. That's not going to continue. The breakaway grammar schools, I urge them not to be breaking away from the system, don't be doing these tests for children as they are starting the wrong government policy and are failing children by doing so."

This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 25 Feb 10

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