‘Dear Santa, this year save our school’

MORE than 50 Kerry children yesterday made a simple but special request to Santa — save our school.

Parents, teachers, pupils and politicians assembled at Fybough National School in the Dingle Peninsula to protest against changes to the pupil-teacher ratio.

The changes could result in the school losing one of its three teachers. Last September, the school had 49 pupils, which was enough to retain three teachers. However, in a decision in the budget relating to small schools, the required number for a three-teacher allocation was raised to 51.