Minister wants student councils in all schools

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn plans to make all second-level schools have an elected student council as he believes too many only pay lip service to considering students’ views and ideas.

All second-level schools are required under the 1998 Education Act to support and assist the setting up of a student council but there is no legal obligation to have them in place.

Mr Quinn revealed his plans on a recent visit to Midleton College in Co Cork, where he praised the democratic nature of its elected student council: “It is my intention to ensure that all of the 730 post-primary schools actively have such a council... Lip service is paid to that democratic formation in many of our schools, and in other schools it’s a form of guided democracy that is more reminiscent of Romania than it is of this country.”