Parents demand investment in primary schools

WE live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It’s easy to say, “It’s not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.” Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes.

My daughter is attending Donabate Portrane Educate Together National School (DPETNS), which has been in rented accommodation in the local sea scout den since it opened last September 2002. The letter of recognition from the Department of Education and Science (DES), which preceded the school’s opening, stated that the sea scout den would be adequate for our first year only. Our Board of Management (BOM) has done its utmost to identify viable alternatives in or near Donabate for our school’s future. The only available option open to us is the local council site designated for primary education by Fingal County Council (FCC).

FCC planners require that their counterparts in the DES enter into negotiations with them directly before the site is acquired for and allocated to our school. The Minister for Education and DES planners have known this to be the situation since November last, but have repeatedly ignored requests to take the initiative required on behalf of DPETNS. The result is that no provision has been made for my child’s education beyond June 2003. We live in a society that purports to place a high value on education. Yet by focusing on post-national school education, we have dangerously missed the point.