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THE Department of Education and Dublin County Council were warned four years ago about a pending crisis over school places in north county Dublin, angry primary principals said last night.
The principals in Balbriggan drew up a detailed report, which was presented to Fingal County Council in the company of former Fianna Fail TD Jim Glennon, as well as an inspector from the department, clearly showing that additional accommodation was required.
Furious principals say they now find themselves in the firing line. One told yesterday's meeting she was labelled "racist" when she tried to explain to a parent that the school was full and that there was a waiting list. "I challenge anyone to say that any child has been turned away on grounds of colour or race," another principal told the meeting, which was organised by the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO).
The meeting was convened in reaction to a crisis in fast-expanding communities, which, this week, saw an all-black enrollment for a new primary school in Balbriggan because local schools could not accommodate the 50 pupils.
Earlier this week, Education Minister Mary Hanafin suggested the problem had arisen because families had only moved into the area in February or March of this year. A department spokeswoman said last night it was never "clear" what the school enrollment numbers would be and they had been working with schools in the area to accommodate the growing population.
When the department officials realised that more children needed a school place, they recently approached the multi-denominational Educate Together patron body to see up another school, she said.
Unfair
INTO general secretary John Carr said one unfair consequence of the failure to plan for school places in Balbriggan, and in other places, is the impression that in some way primary schools or the teachers who work in them do not treat all children equally or fairly.
"Nothing could be further from the truth as the multi-ethnic and multi-faith composition of all the schools in the area showed, but the task of the teacher was being made all the more difficult because of planning failures," he said.
The Department of Education's own development plan for the area, published in February, tracks the growth in the school population of the eight primary schools in the town, showing a 25pc rise over 10 years, with an 85pc increase in one school.
The opening of State-run primary schools, under the auspices of vocational education committees (VECs), must be fast-tracked to avoid the ghettoisation of immigrant families, according to the Irish Vocational Education Association (IVEA).
The Archbishop of Dublin Dr Diarmuid Martin has laid the blame for the problem on a lack of planning by the
State.
http://www.independent.ie/national-n...s-1073697.html
