Dear Madam, - We are writing in response to the superb coverage of your paper in recent weeks on the proposed amalgamation of Portora Royal School and the Collegiate Grammar School.

While we understand and respect the views of others in relation to this proposal, we wish to comment from experience and reality. We are concerned about relying on promises and proposals which have little guarantees when the experience of the promises and plans for Devenish College were not delivered and there is little prospect of delivery.

We have a son who was educated at Portora and a daughter educated at the Collegiate (both at the same time). Our experience of their education in both schools and their subsequent achievements at university as a result of this can only be summed up as excellent. Both us and our children count it a privilege to have had the school experience the children benefitted from. This was the key contributing factor which prevented us from moving from Fermanagh despite commuting to work in Belfast for the past 10 years. The decision was rewarded as both our son and our daughter successfully completed their “A “ levels and gained places in a Scottish University to complete their chosen degrees- which incidentally careers teachers at Portora and the Collegiate helped them select.

Both our children’s educational experience was very different and each one was best suited to the the ethos and culture of the school they attended. Had either of them attended the other’s school the outcome would not have been so successful. In short Portora and the Collegiate are very different schools in ethos and culture, each serving the needs boys and girls respectively. Why risk the loss of something so successful ? Our experience as parents is based on reality and evidenced by the outcomes achieved, this is not an aspiration of what might be!

Why dismantle two proven educational establishments to opt for an untested option which is being delivered on hollow promises. Experience of the WELB has shown that promises of new schools cannot be relied upon. Devenish College, Strabane Academy and Foyle College to name but a few. If these proposals seem attractive as a means of delivering Portora a new school, where is the evidence and where are the guarantees? Even if the amalgamation were to happen and the number of grammar school places is reduced by 10 or 20 per year, there is still no guarantee that Devenish College will be built as it is hard to see how the Minister would ever approve the building of an 800 pupil school when present numbers are over 250 below that figure.

Meanwhile many Fermanagh children will have been denied the opportunity that our children benefitted from. Those of us who have faith in the current system because it has delivered, ought to speak out and make the case for an alternative viable less expensive proven option. Retain the Collegiate, provide Portora with the refurbishment it requires and get the Devenish build completed, creating three schools which could have 600 pupils each. This would represent better value for money and guarantee continuation of the excellent educational outcomes that the Collegiate, Portora and Devenish have achieved over many generations . This would represent a win-win solution for parents, children, the Western Education and Library Board and the Department of Education.

Let’s not have civil war in our county fed by the folly of the Western Education and Library Board and the persistent rapidly changing policies of the Department of Education designed to demolish academic selection which these proposals will ultimately achieve.

Have wisdom in deciding on the future of our schools and let’s build on a rock not on the sands of false and unproven promises.

Yours faithfully, Leslie and Diane Stevenson Lisnarick.