Old school of three ministers faces closure as roll drops to five pupils [independent.ie]
- Published: 07 May 2009
Source: independent.ie
By TOM GILMORE
Thursday May 07 2009
IT boasts three Ministers of State as past pupils but a primary school's survival is in doubt as its roll call has dwindled to just five children.
With so few pupils, Killasolan National School in east Galway is believed to be the smallest school in Ireland in terms of numbers.
At a time when many schools are overcrowded and teachers are struggling to cope with large class numbers, the two teachers at Killasolan NS are encouraging parents to send their children there.
The school, where new Minister of State Aine Brady and her brothers, former junior ministers Michael and Tom Kitt were educated, is in an idyllic setting with neatly manicured gardens and playground. It has broadband, a modern fully equipped computer room and "a library that many schools would die for", according to principal Gabrielle Boner.
But while the school's five pupils are getting personal attention from the two teachers and a classroom assistant, unless numbers increase dramatically in the coming year, the facility's future may be in doubt.
"We need eight pupils for the school to remain viable and in an ideal situation we hope that we can attract five new pupils when the school has its 'open day' on Friday May 22," says the chairman of the Board of Management Fr Micheal Donnelly.
As none of the current five pupils will be moving on to secondary school this summer, the real crisis will only start to manifest itself in September if they don't get fresh pupils for the following year.
"My late father was headmaster here and this is where all our family went to school," said Michael Kitt.
Facilities
"It is a beautiful modern facility and one can only hope that pupil numbers increase again to ensure that the school continues here," he added.
When he visited the school this week he said he was delighted to see how it had progressed with the provision of new technology and how its facilities had been modernised.
Just 10 years ago, Killasolan NS had 35 on its roll books but this dropped to 24 in 2003 and 20 in 2005.
- TOM GILMORE
