FOURTEEN NEW second-level schools – some with capacity for up to 1,000 pupils – are to open over the next three years.
This comes as the Department of Education plans for a surge in pupil numbers over the next decade. Enrolment at second level is projected to increase from 317,000 last year to 334,000 by 2014, an increase of more than 5 per cent.
Schools with capacity for up to 1,000 pupils will be opened in Claregalway, Lusk, Naas and Navan in 2013. Schools of similar size will open in Ashbourne, Blanchardstown West, Drogheda, Dundalk, Balbriggan, Maynooth and Mulhuddart in 2014.
Other schools to open in 2014 will be in Cork city, Dundrum and Greystones, catering for 500, 500 and 750 pupils respectively. The schools in Balbriggan, Cork city and Dundrum have been designated by the department as Gaelcholáistí, although their patronage has yet to be decided. It is envisaged that most of the new schools will be co-educational in nature.
The new schools are in addition to the new post-primary schools already scheduled to open in Gorey, under the patronage of Co Wexford VEC; Doughiska, under the patronage of Co Galway VEC; and Lucan-Clonburris, under the patronage of Co Dublin VEC in partnership with the multi-denominational group, Educate Together.
Educate Together – recently recognised as a second-level patron by the department – will also be hoping to run some of these schools.
For Educate Together, which already runs 60 primary schools, the move into second-level patronage is a significant advance.
The group says its second-level schools will provide an alternative to the grind school mentality so prominent in the second-level system. It says there is strong local backing for an Educate Together second-level school in Greystones, with more than 800 expressions of interest from local parents.
The Department of Education has also put new arrangements for patronage at second level in place. Most new schools, it says, must have the capacity to operate schools in the size range of 800 to 1,000 pupils. A lower threshold of 400 will apply for Gaelcholáistí.
“This is great news for parents campaigning for Educate Together second-level schools all over the country,” Educate Together’s head of education and network development Emer Nowlan said.
