Commitment to rural school transport questioned [IrishTimes]
- Published: 19 October 2011
CHURCH OF Ireland members in parts of the State have expressed “deep concern . . . about long-term commitment on the part of the Department of Education and Skills to sustained provision of school transport in rural areas”, Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin Michael Jackson has said.
“Were this to be withdrawn, a very real possibility would be school closures by parental decision to have their children educated at schools geographically closer to home beyond and without our particular system,” he said.
A survey last June showed “overwhelming support for Church of Ireland national schools”, he added. “Our eyes are open to the realities of recession, our ears are constantly bombarded by the rhetoric of recovery; we fully accept the need for relevance in education – yet many of us bemoan the turning of the educational experience of young people into a commodity, the definition of the worth of which is its capacity to deliver for the professional labour market.”
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