Relief in rural Galway as threat to 72 small schools lifted by Minister

By TONY GALVIN THERE is considerable relief in many rural communities throughout Co Galway this week following a statement from Education Minister Ruairí Quinn that he has no plans to shut small schools.[private] Galway has 72 schools with pupil numbers under the 50 mark, the highest number of any county in the country. Mayo has 68 and Donegal 60. In total there are 650 schools nationally in the small-school category. There had been fears that a review of schools would lead to the closure of many, especially in rural areas, as a cost-cutting measure, as is recommended in the McCarthy Report. However Minister Quinn told the INTO conference in Sligo that there was no 'ideology' involved in the review and no policy decision had been made to shut down small schools. 'This is part of an overall requirement across all Government departments to have a rolling programme of such studies. The study is simply about ascertaining the facts to inform future decisions,' he said. The Minister said the review should be completed by the end of the year and has stated that he has been left under no illusion about the strength of feeling on the issue. The Bord Snip Nua report, published in 2009, recommended the closure of hundreds of small schools and for schools to be amalgamated to save costs. Labour Deputy Colm Keaveney welcomed Minister Quinn's assurances that the current government has no plans to close hundreds of smaller rural schools as has been widely speculated. 'We have no policy of shutting down smaller schools,' the Minister told the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) conference in Sligo over the weekend. 'This issue has a particular resonance in Co Galway, which has the highest number of one and two teacher schools nationally and there has been a real concern amongst parents, communities and teachers that widespread closures were about to happen,' stated Deputy Keaveney. The concerns felt by smaller schools stems from The McCarthy Report of the Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure, which proposed merging some smaller rural schools and eliminating 300 teaching posts. Deputy Colm Keaveney continued 'this proposal is a slash-and-burn type cost saving but actually would be a false economy. Closing down and merging schools with less than 50 pupils and simply eliminating those teaching positions may look effective on paper but in reality it would not save a penny and cause huge issues and logistical problems in our community'. On a visit to Tuam during the election campaign the man who would becme Minister for Education, Ruairi Quinn, stated that it was his view that schools needed to co-operate and share resources more if the impact of inevitable education cuts was to be softened. On the issue of smaller rural schools, Deputy Quinn said that closing schools may not be necessary if a similar model of co-operation is adopted. Speaking to The Herald in February, he said he would favour  examining a cluster system where one school could be used as a pre-school facility while another in the area could be for early classes and another for fifth and sixth class and so on. In this way options such as Gaelscoils and centralised sports and secretarial facilities could be incorporated.[/private]