Consultation process flawed

Editorial Department • Published 16 Feb 2012 13:00 0 Comments

Dear Sir - St Aidan's High School in Derrylin, Co Fermanagh is a successful, community, rural school.

Like other secondary schools across Northern Ireland, our school and community have been awaiting the publication of detailed proposals on the future structure of post primary education. Under the reform proposals for our area, formally announced by our schools management organisation, the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools ("CCMS"), today 13 February, our school faces closure in the next 3/4 years, through an amalgamation.

In the case of St Aidan's, this formal announcement was pre-empted some weeks ago, by circulation by a local CCMS grouping, of plans for amalgamation of three schools in rural South East Fermanagh, including St Aidan's, likely to be onto a site outside our area. We believe the consultation process has been inadequate, flawed, not face to face and unacceptable.

This pre-emptive announcement has triggered a massive community response in our area. Over 500 people attended a public meeting two weeks ago and unanimously rejected the amalgamation proposal. It decided to establish a community action group to fight the planned closure and to develop alternative proposals to retain post primary education on the St Aidan's site in Derrylin. This group has already begun work and has developed a strategy to achieve this educational and social objective for the area, which we have already begun to implement.

A key part of our strategy is to challenge what we consider inequitable, unreasonable and unsustainable policies which will wreak enormous educational, social and economic damage on our young people and our entire community. This is particularly the case with application of the Sustainable Schools policy threshold of 500 pupils for a viable 11 - 16 school to a rural, disadvantaged area which has also suffered for over forty years from Border isolation. We are also demanding to know why other policy obligations such as rural proofing, equality screening and sustainability of local communities socially and economically, have not been applied to produce more just proposals. We believe that the educational reform proposals for our area, County Fermanagh and across Northern Ireland are in contradiction of the Executive's social and economic policy objectives. By way of comparison, we understand that this approach is also in marked contrast to Government education and social policy in relation to rural schools in Scotland and Wales.

We are acutely aware that there are many post primary schools and local communities across Northern Ireland facing the same situation as we at St Aidan's, many in rural and disadvantaged areas. We have concluded that the more fundamental educational and social policy issues which this education reform programme highlights, must be tackled together on a collective basis, by all communities impacted by it across Northern Ireland, whatever their background or denomination. We believe this education reform programme is being driven primarily by financial and budgetary considerations and that educational excellence and social policy objectives have been subordinated to them.

We wish to stimulate and facilitate an educational and community response across Northern Ireland to lobby and act together to bring about change to these damaging policies and programme. We will be linking up with appropriate rural, community and voluntary organisations and networks to achieve that aim.

We therefore invite your school, Governors and/or action groups/community organisations to make contact with us and join with us in working together across Northern Ireland to:

Oppose unfair and in many cases unnecessary post primary education reform proposals and policies; and

Develop and achieve more equitable post primary educational solutions which will also enable locally based education to continue to make its vital contribution to the development of our young people and the social and economic sustainability and development of our local communities.

If you would like to talk with us about what we are doing and how we could work together, please contact Barry O'Reilly of our action group:

by email st.aidansactiongroup@gmail.com, or mobile (+44) 07974 827526.

If you are not in a position to deal with this request from our Action Group, I would be grateful if you could please pass it on to any action group or community organisation in your area which may be concerned about this damaging education reform programme.

On behalf of the St Aidan's Community Action Group and the people of this area, I thank you for reading this letter and we look forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours faithfully,

Michael McAloon

Chairperson

St. Aidan's High School, Derrylin

Community Action Group on

Education Reform

Tel: +447855813986

E: st.aidansactiongroup@gmail.com

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This letter appeared in Impartial Reporter 16 Feb 12

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