IPPN

Last Updated: Wednesday, 24 November 2004 00:00

Principal Teachers urge DES to save small schools

At the first ever cross-border conference of Principal Teachers on the
island of Ireland, delegates heard Virginia O'Mahony, President of the
Irish Primary Principals' Network (IPPN), issue a strong challenge to the
Department of Education and Science to address the impending demise of
small primary schools in Ireland.

"We have had twenty-five years where nobody has seriously looked at the
issues and challenges facing smaller schools in Ireland." Over 70% of
our schools are small schools with teaching principals, many in isolated
rural areas. Children attending school, no matter where they live, are
entitled to a similar service. Because of the demands placed on teaching
principals and the bureaucratic requirements of the Department of
Education and Science in allocating resources, smaller schools face an
uncertain future and risk closure as they fail to attract principals.
Last year, thirty six schools advertised to recruit principals and
received no applications."

The conference outlined research into innovative ideas for future models
of school organisation which are currently being developed by IPPN in
conjunction with Dr. Mark Morgan, St. Patrick's College of Education.
This research has been conducted over the last eighteen months in
collaboration with and support of the key education partners.

"This is the first serious piece of research which has been undertaken
in Ireland into exploring a vision and models of good practice on the
issue of small schools. If we continue to do nothing, this is
effectively a death sentence for smaller schools and we will wake up in
five years time and wonder where they have gone?"

IPPN calls on the Minister for Education and Science to establish a
series of pilot projects based on the findings of this groundbreaking
research. Based on the results of this research and with the experience
of clustering and federation models of schools in Northern Ireland,
there is now an unprecedented opportunity to suggest innovative and
creative evidence based models for smaller schools to thrive and
flourish. This is a real example of rich cross border co-operation where
the experiences of principal teachers can be shared to great effect.

IPPN is the professional association representing 3,300 primary
principal teachers in Ireland. This conference - Bringing Heads Together
- has been organised in co-operation with the National Association of
Head Teachers, their Northern Ireland counterparts.

Ends

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John Curran, Public Relations Officer
Tel: +353 (0)87 2314259

Virginia O'Mahony, President
Tel: +353 (0)86 6866360

Seán Cottrell, Director
Tel: +353(0)86 6478717