Why should Fermanagh school children be disadvantaged?

Editorial Department • Published 24 Jun 2010 16:00 0 Comments

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Lack of disabled access means boy (10) misses school open day

Our front page this week tells the story of how a young wheelchair-bound boy wasn't able to attend an open day at Portora Royal School because they lacked the basic facilities to cope with his visit.

One has to wonder how this situation has arisen; after all, the notion of providing such facilities is hardly new and many, many organisations are able to cope with fairly straightforward arrangements.

Often, we look for someone to point the finger of blame at, but it should be said at the outset that this should not be an exercising in having a go at Portora itself.

While we cannot say that they are totally absolved from all responsibility, the school appears to be on the wrong end of some serious mismanagement at many levels in our education system at the moment.

Portora will, it seems, have disabled toilets and a lift in place later this year and the delay in providing them would appear to be down to the Department of Education. Welcome as the move is, it comes too late to spare young Ben Thompson and his family the inconvenience and embarrassment of not being treated the same way as the rest of his contemporaries preparing to transfer schools.

The issue, of course, raises the much wider concern that people have of building provision for schools in the controlled sector in Fermanagh.

Whatever side one may come down on in the debate about the future of education arrangements in Northern Ireland, there can be no doubt that Fermanagh's controlled sector has fared extremely badly when it comes to funding school estates. Portora is highlighted in this case, but there is justifiable anger about the lack of a new Devenish College building for Enniskillen.

It was expected to have been started a long time ago. And in view of the present economic climate with a serious clampdown on public spending, what now for Fermanagh's schools.

Hopefully, young Ben will not let this incident affect his future hopes for education and he will be facilitated at whatever school he decides to go to.

But if we don't have decent schools built, many hundreds of post-primary children will be at a disadvantage in Fermanagh in the coming years.

This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 24 Jun 10

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