More diverse school structure in the Liberties

Liberty Reporter

A new non-church-based primary school is said to be opening soon in Dublin South Inner City .

Plans are already well advanced for the merger of two Catholic primary schools in the Dublin 8 area to make room for a new multidenominational school, RTÉ has reported.

Two unnamed schools in the “loose Dublin 8 and environs” area of the city will join together so that the area’s high demand for non-church-based education can be addressed, education correspondent Emma O’Kelly said.

The Griffith Barracks Multi-denominational School is the only such school in this part of Dublin, and it can’t accept the large number of children whose parents apply for places every year.

The Dublin archdioscese has been canvassing views in the area, O’Kelly reported, as part of its efforts to move Ireland toward a more diverse set of school-management structures.

The news comes as parents in five areas elsewhere in the country are being surveyed about their primary-school preferences.

This survey scheme was a recommendation of the Forum on Patronage and Pluralism in the Primary Sector, which identified more than 40 areas of stable population where there could be moves toward merging and re-organising schools.

The areas to be surveyed in the first phase of the scheme include Whitehall in north Dublin, as well as Arklow, Co Wicklow; Castlebar, Co Mayo; Tramore, Co Waterford, and Trim, Co Meath.

Parents will be asked for their views on same-sex schools and Irish-language education as well as religious control of primary education.

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