Primary school mergers to boost patron options

A spike in the number of primary school amalgamations could pave the way for divestment of patronage, the Education Minister Jan O’Sullivan has said.

The number of school mergers has doubled this year compared to 2014 and has been steadily increasing in recent years.

The Department of Education hopes that buildings can be freed up through amalgamations to allow for schools of varying patronage such as Educate Together and gaelscoileanna.

Last year, two Catholic schools in Dublin’s Basin Lane area amalgamated taking one school building out of the hands of the Church and allowing for the establishment of an Educate Together school.

Many of the amalgamations involved all-boys schools joining all-girls schools which will boost the availability of co-education options at primary level for parents and their children in some areas.

For example, three single-sex schools in Greenhills, Dublin 12 amalgamated into Holy Spirit junior primary school while the same was the case in Arklow, Co Wicklow, where three schools were merged for St Michael’s and St Peters Junior School.

Figures obtained by the Irish Examiner show 15 primary schools have merged this year, up from seven in 2014, nine in 2013 and five in 2012. Ms O’Sullivan said amalgamations could help speed up the process of divestment.

“Amalgamation is something certainly which would be in the mix because it can provide an opportunity where somebody doesn’t feel you are taking my school to give a different patronage,” she said.

A Department of Education spokesman said: “Most amalgamations are freeing up buildings. So if you have a boys school and girls school and they come together obviously one of the buildings will be freed up,” he said.

However, he said it is still up to individual patrons to decide on what former school buildings should be used for.

He cited one school building which was used for VEC further education after amalgamation.

There were three amalgamations in counties Dublin and Wicklow, two in counties Limerick, Tipperary, and Kerry. While counties Clare, Cork, and Galway had one amalgamation each at primary level.

With 98% of primary schools still under the patronage of the Church, an increase in divestment of schools would be welcomed by parent groups.

Ms O’Sullivan said: “I am trying to speed up the divestment process and I am in the middle of a round of meetings with all the patron bodies. I have met three of them in the last two weeks, the Catholic Bishops, the Education Training Boards and Educate Together.

Although former Education Minister Ruairí Quinn had promised to offer greater diversity of schools by taking some schools out of the control of the Church, progress has been slow.

A primary school patronage survey, commissioned in 2012 by Mr Quinn, recommended alternative patrons for 23 out of 38 towns studied.

However, since then, just eight schools have been divested which a Department of Education spokesman said “is not enough”.

The department spokesman said they would now be looking at ways to “invigorate” the divestment process and one of the options being looked at is amalgamations.

Recently John Coolahan, professor emeritus of education in the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, suggested that progress on divesting schools could be made through the amalgamations.