More than 900 students filed through the doors of Roscrea's newly created Colaiste Phobal Ros Cre last September. The sense of excitement in the Co Tipperary school at the moment of rebirth and renewal was palpable after 15 years of preparation.

It was a cause for celebration. There may even have been a few whoops of joy and shouts of hurray.

The new Roscrea school is just one of more than 20 schools which are in the process of being created following consultation and the amalgamation of up to 70 existing schools.

In Roscrea, the school grew out of a consultative process between three schools which began 15 years ago. "There was tremendous consensus in the town," says Gerard O'Brien, principal of the new school, which is expected to get an official grand opening next September. The bulldozers and the portocabins are still in evidence around the school's revamped section and the old CBS school across the football field is still being used, but there's no mistaking the sense of new beginnings. The upcoming new schools (see panel on opposite page) are spread around the State. In each case, the Department of Education and Science emphasises, it says, "the need to find the most effective way of providing significantly improved educational opportunities for pupils".

However, second-level principals have been increasingly worried about the issue of school amalgamation as the number of merging schools has increased. It was discussed at a recent conference of the Secondary Schools Principals Association of Ireland (SSPAI) earlier this month.

`It is clearly a matter of critical urgency," says Ray Kennedy, an SSPAI spokesman. Delegates - including principals directly involved in amalgamations - debated the topic and teased out the problems. During an amalgamation, "principals experience huge pressure because of their dual role," says Sister Marie Mullen, former principal of the Convent of Sacred Heart Secondary School in Roscrea. "And parents nerves get a bit frayed," she adds. This happens for various reasons, including the fact that as the numbers of students diminish in the smaller schools that are going to close, subject choice may become narrower and the number of teachers may decline. Delegates heard how such a process can also affect the local community, which is often slow to relinquish its school and recognise the inevitable which can spell "the end of old loyalties and a familiar world".

The SSPAI says that principals on the whole accept that such rationalisation is "essential", but they also say that "bringing unity and solidarity to two or more school staffs, sometimes erstwhile rivals, is a daunting task and often undertaken by principals while operating an already excessive workload".

According to the SSPAI, the management of this process can involve "a poignancy unfelt by well-motivated but distant planners operating from Dublin". Frank Smith, principal of St Joseph's CBS in Portarlington, Co Laois, explains how the process of amalgamating with Scoil Mhuire Presentation Secondary School is "very intense" with "quite a long list of things that have to be done". There is great excitement about the new school but he says the two biggest issues in Portarlington are fundraising and the work involved in planning the building of the school. From the principal's point of view, "a lot of work has to be done on top of running your own school", he says. It eats into the principal's time quite significantly each year, he adds.

However, the Minister for Education, Micheal Martin, seems aware of the stresses and strains. He told the recent annual SSPAI conference in Tullamore, Co Offaly, that the approach to amalgamation is "very much a consultative one, involving trustees, boards of management, teachers and parents . . . No compulsion is involved, nor could a successful outcome ever be expected from such an approach," he said.

In the case of the voluntary secondary sector, he pointed out, the rights of private owners "is very much acknowledged and respected".

The over-riding issue in deciding a school's future is to ensure that the students in a school "experience an affirming learning experience in a more curriculum-rich environment", according to Frank Murray, chairman of the Commission on School Accommodation.

Speaking to the same conference, he told delegates that the Department approaches each rationalisation case "on its own merits". It is "more a matter of carrying out a series of rather consistently used procedures than of implementing a clearly articulated policy," he explained.

He attributes "the current momentum and debate on amalgamations" to several factors, including demographic trends, curricular contraction trends, the decline in the post-primary population, the decline of involvement of religious orders in education and the expectation that schools will cater for the different aptitudes and abilities of all students.

At second level, he said, "amalgamations have resulted in an increase in the number of community schools and community colleges and a decrease in the number of secondary schools."

"In some parts of the country, amalgamations of second-level schools have resulted in less choice in the type of school," he cautioned, recognising that school amalgamation is not a panacea.

"Closing a school is a painful experience; awareness that each school has its own history, identity and culture is important. In order to ensure that a smooth transition takes place, it is essential that the community, parents, staff and students are given the opportunity to move from the old and establish the new."

The Development of a new school can signify change and a much-needed injection of energy and affirmation. So says Michael Middleton, principal of the Marist Convent Secondary School in Tubbercurry, Co Sligo, who is part of the steering group which is paving the way for the town's new school. The planned new school there will be "up and running in the year 2000", he says.

There were amalgamation discussions as long ago as the early 1970s, Middleton says, but "it petered out". The process was revived three years ago.

"It means revitalisation of the local south Sligo area," he says. The population is also expected to double in the next two years, with new houses being built as part of an urban renewal scheme. "We've been waiting for so long, it will give the place a gee-up. "I'm very enthusiastic about it. South Sligo needs something to keep the local population, to counteract the migration factor. This used to be a very big industrial town in the 1960s, but it has gone down as an industry area."

The new Tubbercurry school will be unique also in that it will be the first school formed under the Government's Public/Private Partnership Agreement. It is envisioned that a company will be formed to operate the school, consisting of a builder, a facilities manager and a financier.

Some of the factors which the Department takes on board when considering a school amalgamation, Frank Murray explains, include the mobility of pupils in their choice of school; competition between schools; curriculum provision, i.e. the range of subjects and how the needs of all pupils are being met; staffing restrictions due to a fall in enrolment; how pupils are grouped for learning; and the pressure on principals to cope with the implications and continue to maintain and implement school polities. According to Micheal Martin, the complexity of school planning issues at second level was one of the key factors underlying the establishment of the Commission on School Accommodation. This body, which is to provide an important input into State policy decisions on school provision, is expected to produce a report on the issue of school amalgamation early in the new year.

"The deliberations of this body are likely to have an important bearing on the future course of the Department policy in this critical area," according to the Minister.