STUDENTS at Collegiate Grammar and Portora Royal schools are set to return for a new term in a few days’ time not knowing whether it will be the last year both schools exist in their current form.

Education Minister John O’Dowd has yet to announce his decision on a proposal to discontinue the two schools and amalgamate them by September 2015.

A spokesman for the Department of Education told the Impartial Reporter that no timescale had been laid out as to when Mr. O’Dowd would announce his decision.

He said the proposal to merge the two Enniskillen schools was a particularly “complex issue”.

The Western Education and Library Board published proposals on May 14 this year regarding the discontinuation of Collegiate Grammar School and Portora Royal School, and the opening of a new co-educational 11-18 non-denominational grammar school in Enniskillen.

Public consultation on the proposals ended on July 14.

The spokesman for the department said “several hundred individual and template responses” had been received over the course of the consultation period, as well as a petition with more than 7,000 signatures.

“Department of Education officials are currently in the process of collating and analysing all information pertinent to the proposals, including the responses to the consultation, and the Minister will make decisions on the proposals in due course,” he said, “The Minister has met with representatives from the schools involved and is well aware of the level of interest in this case and has a full understanding of the views expressed. He will give these due consideration when making his decision.”