Two Mile NS set to reconfigure

DECISION TO RE-OPEN SCHOOL SPARKS PATRONAGE ROW

TWO Mile National School near Killarney will open its doors this September as a ‘Community National School’ under the remit of the Kerry Educational and Training Board (ETB).

The announcement on Monday means that the Fossa Parish school, which is currently closed, will become one of the first ‘reconfiguration’ schools to open under Minister for Education and Skills Richard Bruton’s plans to deliver 400 multi-denominational and non-denominational schools across the country by 2030.

The ‘Reconfiguration for Diversity Process’ follows a decision by Bishop of Kerry Ray Browne – who has welcomed the move – to lease the property to Kerry ETB. The process followed consultation with the community following a meeting in March organised by the ‘Two Mile Community Group’.

Kerry ETB this week welcomed the move, stating that it is delighted to be opening the school and looked forward to working with parents and children. Kerry ETB said this particular model is unique in the sense the State is the patron and the school will benefit directly from the support offered by Kerry ETB.

One of four members of a committee that campaigned to have the school reopened, Sheila O’Donoghue said all involved were ‘delighted and looking forward to a new start’. Deputy Brendan Griffin TD also expressed his delight: “After many months of hard work, I want to pay tribute to everybody involved in this effort, it it is great to have such a positive outcome”.

However Educate Together, a national patrton body supporting multi-denominational schools, has expressed anger at the decision, claiming that the move vindicates concerns it had raised in January 2017.

Those concerns centred around claims that that undue influence was being given to the Catholic Church, leaving families campaigning for equality-based schools without a voice in the process. They say that the Community National School model allows for “faith formation, including preparation for Communion and Confirmation”.

Educate Together CEO Paul Rowe said parents were being let down by the move and he claimed that parents seeking an Educate Together school were never consulted or asked to make a case for Educate Together patronage at the school.

Mr Rowe said he was disappointed for parents. “What is needed now is a complete review of the Minister’s proposed process for reconfiguration,” he said.

“The State needs to take control of this process, so that the needs of local communities, and not Bishops or religious orders, are central, and so that real change can happen nationwide,” he added.

Approximately 99 per cent of Kerry’s 16,000 primary school children attend Catholic Church controlled schools. Kerry has one multi-denominational school that caters for 72 children, and two Church of Ireland schools catering for 66 children between them, amounting to less than one per cent of the total primary school provision in Kerry.