Catholic schools leader calls for incentives to amalgamate

The chairman of the Catholic Schools Partnership (CSP) has called for incentives to encourage primary schools to amalgamate.

Fr Michael Drumm, who chairs the body representing Catholic primary and post-primary schools, said something was needed to break the logjam in the divestment of State-funded, Catholic-run primary schools and their transfer to secular patronage.

He said there had been little progress since the Government’s forum on patronage and pluralism in 2012.

The UN has since criticised the slow progress in increasing access to secular education in Ireland, and has warned the Government that it could be censured if reforms were not delivered.

Fr Drumm said the 2012 report, which included a survey of parents’ attitudes on school patronage, showed that it was not a major issue for most parents, but an issue for a minority.

“The survey demonstrated that somewhere between 2% to 8% of parents in certain areas want, and would avail of, an alternative, if it was available,” said Fr Drumm. “We have been trying to adapt the system to address their needs.”

However, the time had now come for the Department of Education to introduce inducements, such as guarantees that amalgamated schools would retain all their grants, to move the process on, he said.

“The best way forward, in this process, is not to transfer a living school from one patron to another, because that scares parents, it scare a lot of teachers, and gives rise to a lot of tension on the ground,” he said.

“What doesn’t give rise to tension and what will work, and it has worked many times over the years, is where you amalgamate two to three schools and they come together, and cease to exist as separate schools. They become one.”

However, the Department of Education had to encourage schools to buy into amalgamation, and limited financial inducements could help, he said. Primary schools operated from hand-to-mouth, relying on capitation grants and fundraising, and feared losing even small grants if they amalgamated, he said.

He told the This Week programme, on RTÉ Radio One yesterday, that if the department guaranteed that such grants would survive amalgamation, schools might consider it. He also said that church leaders were committed to divestment.

Prof John Coolahan, who chaired the patronage forum, said that while the bishops were not opposed to the process, they had not used their moral authority to advocate it.