Parents close to nuclear option over Faughart School issues
PROTEST OUTSIDE SN BHRIGHDE ATTENDED BY LARGE GROUP FROM COMMUNITY
PARENTS who attended the protest outside Scoil Naisiunta Bhrighde in Faughart say they are ‘days away from the nuclear option’ of removing their children permanently from the school.
Around 200 people, including parents and members of the community, protested outside the North Louth school last Tuesday night after concerned mums and dads escalated an ongoing protest over management and standards.
Parents’ spokesperson, and former member of the board of management, Eoghan Jones, told the Argus that the organisers were very pleased with the turnout for the protest ‘which included not only parents, but grandparents, former students, aunts, uncles etc’ and showed ‘ the great community spirit there is in Faughart and how the school is at the centre of the community’.
He said concerned parents are ‘ not focused on apportioning blame’ and ‘ want to make sure our school flourishes’, but, Mr Jones added, ‘ this is not happening’ and pointed to the fact that enrolment has plummeted to 53 students at present, though there is a maximum capacity for 120 and ‘neighbouring schools are bursting at the seams’.
He said: ‘We were very pleased with the turnout at the protest and it is great to see the school has a fantastic level of support in the community - it’s very encouraging’.
Mr Jones said there had been ‘no updates from authorities’ to parents about any possible resolution to the issues raised, not only by parents, but also by a Department of Education inspector’s report released in March.
The report says the school’s mission statement to ‘provide education of the highest quality for all pupils in a happy and healthy environment’ is not be- ing realised and ‘ the oversight role of the Board of Management is not being discharged satisfactorily’.
And while the inspector found the quality of the teaching at the school was ‘satisfactory overall’, there was a ‘significant variation . . . from outstanding to poor’.
In response to the evaluation, the Board said they were ‘working to develop an action plan to address the concerns and implement recommendations and once that has been finalised, it will be shared with the whole school community’.
Mr Jones said: ‘ We believe that the authorities’ approach is to let the school year run down to the end of June and these issues will somehow go away over the summer.
‘But at the moment, it looks like we are about seven days away from the nuclear option as we have less and less faith (in authorities) with each day that passes, as every parent has a ‘plan B’ for their child come September and, if the issues remain come September, I believe the vast majority of kids will leave’.