Students stay home in Clare school protest

PARENTS with children at the 120-year-old girls' convent primary school in Kilkee, Co Clare, will take them out of school today…

PARENTS with children at the 120-year-old girls' convent primary school in Kilkee, Co Clare, will take them out of school today in the first of a series of one-day protests against the refusal of the Department of Education to allow a key building programme to go ahead.

The amalgamation of the 100-pupil school with the local boys' primary school was given the go-ahead by the Department three years ago, the principal, Sister Marie Ryan, said yesterday. Since then, the extension to the boys' school required for the amalgamation has been "put on the long finger".

It was claimed the girls' school had no staff-room or staff toilets and was extremely damp and the outside toilets used by children were "extremely dangerous".