VEC primary school wins recognition

A DUBLIN primary school to open next year, operated by a Vocational Education Committee (VEC), could mark the first significant step in altering the Catholic church’s domination of primary education.

Education Minister Mary Hanafin made the landmark decision yesterday to grant recognition to County Dublin VEC for the school in Diswellstown, which is expected to enrol its first pupils in September 2008.

Around 93% of the country’s 3,279 primary schools are under the patronage of the local Catholic bishop, but the pilot school could provide a model for other VECs to meet the educational needs of a diverse school population.

Ms Hanafin said it was her intention to ensure the school caters for the diversity of religious faiths represented in the area it serves.

“Provision will be made within the school setting for the religious, moral and ethical education of children in conformity with the wishes of their parents,” she said.

The new school will be called Diswellstown Community National School. It is one of a number of planned primary schools for which recognition has been sought recently by some of the country’s 33 city and county VECs, including two applications from Co Clare VEC. But Ms Hanafin said last night that she does not plan to recognise VECs as patrons of any other primary schools until the pilot in Dublin is evaluated.

The VECs operate almost 250 vocational schools and community colleges attended by almost one-in-four of the country’s 300,000 second level students.

The minister said the existing models of primary school patronage have served the education sector well over many decades and will continue to do so.

There are almost 40 multi-denominational schools in the country. The remaining non-Catholic primary schools include 183 Church of Ireland, 14 Presbyterian, two Muslim, one Methodist, one Jewish and one Jehovah’s Witness.

The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation said the challenges of a changing Ireland for parents, policy makers, teachers, school managers and pupils must be the subject of consultation.

“We must design a new model of schooling which would accommodate our new diversity under one roof,” INTO general secretary John Carr said.