“I am not powerless, I will fight this,” declares Stormont Minister Arlene Foster as she reflects on the fall-out over the proposal by the Western Education and Library Board to amalgamate Portora Royal School with Collegiate Grammar School.

The Fermanagh-south Tyrone MLA, a former student of the Collegiate, opposes the potential development, saying it would be a “retrograde” step and disagrees with comments made recently by Portora Headmaster Neil Morton.

“I know that Neil Morton says there are too many children going to grammar schools in Fermanagh. He is entitled to make those comments, though I don’t agree with a lot of what he has had to say in relation to the Portora/Collegiate situation.” “I think as many children as possible should have access to grammar school education and indeed, if the cap of 500 pupils each was lifted, I think you would find more people applying to go to both schools,” she said.

Mrs. Foster will take a petition objecting to the proposal to Stormont and says she will then raise the issue with First Minister Peter Robinson.

“Many signatures have been collected from parents and others, and I understand there have even been signatures collected from the Catholic community which is interesting, but not surprising. People from right across the community appreciate the level of education in County Fermanagh.” “I will present the petition to the Speaker of the Assembly to let him see the strength of feeling on this issue and he will then pass it to the education minister. I will also be speaking to the first minister about this as it has a huge impact on education provision in Fermanagh,” she added.

The DUP politician believes a new build for Devenish College in Enniskillen, first promised over 10 years ago, “should be the top priority”.

“The school estate in Fermanagh needs to be tackled head on and I have always said to all of the schools that we need to prioritise things and for me, the number one priority is Devenish College’s new build. We have heard that the Minister is keen to move ahead but I haven’t seen any evidence of that as yet. I stand to be corrected on that, but there doesn’t appear to be much movement. Devenish is my number one priority.” “Secondly, Portora has been in dire need for a gym and there is a very clear case of getting them a new facility, and thirdly, the Collegiate needs a new science block. Instead, the Western Board thinks we should have a so-called amalgamation,” she said.

Mrs. Foster said the proposal to merge the two schools has been revisited by the Western Education and Library Board “against the wishes of the Collegiate Board of Governors, against the wishes of the staff and against the wishes of the parents”.

And she added: “We should never think of schools in isolation from other education sectors as well”.

“As I understand it, St. Michael’s and St. Joseph’s are talking about forming an all ability secondary school, which would be a huge school, and the Catholics girls sector is probably going in that direction as well.” “My worry is that if the Catholic sector becomes all-ability that Catholic parents will choose to send their children to the new school and thereby displace young Protestants from the grammar school sector and that worries me. We could be left with one grammar school in Fermanagh,” she said.

Following last week’s “heated” meeting between officials from the Western Education and Library Board and Collegiate parents, Mrs. Foster said: “I would hope that the Board heard very clearly that parents do not want this to happen. But my fear is that they will continue to press ahead even though there is minority support for this proposal.”