School with two pupils ‘should stay open’

A primary school with just two pupils should continue operating, despite the disproportionate staffing costs, Education Minister Jan O’Sullivan has insisted.

Scoil Aoife in west Tallaght has enrolled a second child since the Irish Examiner revealed eight days ago that it started up in a community centre with only one girl in junior infants. As long as the numbers remain in single digits, it is likely that a second person will have to be in the class at all times with the teacher in line with normal child protection rules.

As its patron until the country’s nine community national schools formally come under the control of local education and training boards (ETBs), Ms O’Sullivan said the school will eventually prosper.

“There are issues, definitely, around [staffing], I mean it’s not an ideal situation obviously that you’d have such a small number of children,” she said.

“We are in ongoing contact with the [Dublin and Dun Laoghaire] ETB which is managing it, and the numbers will grow.”

She said one of the issues may be that as the school has opened in temporary accommodation in a community centre, parents might not be quite sure about it at this point in time. However, she said, the Department of Education has statistics on the demographics in that part of Tallaght and there will be a burgeoning population of children.

“They have information on the number of younger children that are there,” said Ms O’Sullivan. “So irrespective of the patronage of the school, I think there is certainly evidence that there will be a need for a new school.”

Two other multi-denominational schools — one ETB-run and one Educate Together — opened a mile away in Citywest two years ago and both have admitted two classes of junior infants each year since.