School wins right to take in city pupils

AN ACCLAIMED Co Limerick secondary school has won its battle to continue drawing students from the city suburbs.

Rivals had accused Scoil Chiarán in Croom of “cherry-picking” brighter students from the city.

They asked the Department of Education to confine the school’s enrolment area to Croom and neighbouring villages.

But yesterday the department, in a major policy document on school placement in Limerick, said the school could continue to enrol students from Mungret and the city suburbs of Dooradoyle and Raheen. Coláiste Chiarán was the first school in the country to replace all book work with laptop computers acquired from Dell at reduced prices.

Michael Dell visited the school to pay tribute to the students and teaching staff.

School principal Noel Malone said: “Coláiste Chiarán welcomes the publication by the Minister for Education and Science of the Area School Development Plan for Limerick City and part of its environs.

“The plan was conducted by the Commission on School Accommodation who was mandated by the department to conduct a public engagement to which all interested parties could make submissions.

“The aim was to facilitate the publication of a development plan for the area, against which all capital funding decisions would be made up to the year 2013.”

Mr Malone expressed his satisfaction with the broad thrust of the plan and its recommendations.

He said: “The plan acknowledges that the popularity of Coláiste Chiarán has become a major factor in terms of the current and future impact on the provision of adequate post-primary places in Limerick city. This is borne out by the very significant numbers of students who continue to commute from the city environs to attend Coláiste Chiaráin.”

The school’s enrolment in 1998 was 118 and this has grown to more than 800, an increase of 581.36%.

Due to spiralling numbers the department has approved the provision of a new school building and associated campus facilities.

In accordance with the school’s current policy the department recommends that numbers should be kept to 800 student.

It says the school should continue to give priority to students from its catchment area and should provide for the shortfall of post-primary school places in the expanding areas of Raheen, Dooradoyle and Mungret.

Mr Malone said he was delighted that their hard work was being recognised in a key policy document.

“We look forward to the speedy commencement of the new school building which will do justice to the uniquely successful education programme being offered to the students of Coláiste Chiaráin.”