Parents face loss of Catholic school choice [IrishExaminer]
- Published: 30 March 2011
PARENTS could be left with no choice of a Catholic secondary school in parts of the country within 20 years because they face near-elimination by other education models, a school management leader has warned.
Ferdia Kelly, general secretary of the Joint Managerial Body (JMB) — which represents the boards of almost 400 Catholic and Protestant voluntary secondary schools — said there is a danger of moving from a second-level system once dominated by religious-run schools to one where they are just a small minority or even non-existent in new communities.
Education Minister Ruairí Quinn this week announced a forum would decide on how some of the 90% of primary schools under Catholic patronage could move to new patron bodies.
However, delegates at the JMB annual conference, which begins today, have concerns about the falling numbers of denominational schools at second-level.
The number of denominational secondary schools has fallen from almost 500 in 1989 to 383 today due to closures and amalgamations. Around 360 of these are Catholic voluntary secondary schools, run by religious orders or taken over for them by lay trust bodies.
Most new second-level schools or those created from mergers — where neighbouring religious-run schools with falling numbers amalgamated — were community schools or colleges, mostly with a multi-denominational ethos, although some are succinctly Catholic.
