Two schools appeal for long-awaited buildings

TWO schools, one overcrowded and the other struggling with out-of-date classrooms, have appealed to the Department of Education and Science to sanction long-awaited, new buildings.

Gorey Community School in Co Wexford was originally built to accommodate 800 to 900 pupils. An extension was added to cater for a further 400. But today, over 1,600 pupils are packed into classrooms designed to accommodate just 1,300.

“We have a very fine, modern building and good facilities. But we just don’t have enough of them,” according to school vice-principal, Kevin Swords.

“The population of Gorey is constantly growing and we are now in a situation where we will have to limit our intake next year and turn away families who have been coming here for generations.”

Just down the road, Kilmuckridge Vocational College is in a similar situation. Its intake continues to grow but most of the 197 pupils are accommodated either in prefabs which are over 20 years old or in the main building which dates back to 1936.

“Micheal Martin said in 1998 that we were to get a new school building. We’re still waiting. We have no PE or gym, no showers, prefab buildings which are 20 years old and more and two buildings which are of single block construction and are very hard to heat,” according to principal, Seamus Redmond.

Fine Gael’s Education spokesperson Olwyn Enright visited both schools in the past few days and said she was not surprised by what she saw. “I was not surprised by what I saw but was surprised by the lack of planning by the Department of Education over the years.

The Department of Education and Science said that Kilmuckridge is to get a large school extension.

But no work will go ahead in 2004.

A spokesperson said that the department is aware of the situation in Gorey and said that it has met with the council to examine how the needs of first and second level pupils can be met in the future.