RURAL IRELAND has been stripped of its post offices and Garda stations and now the Government is squeezing out small national schools in a bid to make financial savings, a public meeting of the Save our Small Schools Campaign in Dunmanway, West Cork heard last night.
Up to 700 people attended the meeting at the Parkway Hotel.
Campaigners expressed concern that budget cuts in education would lead to the closure of up to 10 schools in west Cork within three years.
Clara McGowan, principal of St James National School in Durrus, west Cork and spokeswoman for the campaign, said the fabric of rural Ireland would be eroded if small primary schools were forced to close.
“We fear if we win the battle this time are we going to win it the next time? It is death by a thousand cuts. A school is the heartbeat of a community,” she said.
Ms McGowan has received support from principals from as far afield as Sligo. She says budget cuts make it highly likely that a child in a one-teacher school could be in a classroom of 19 children with eight grades being taught by the one teacher.
“In a two-teacher school one teacher could be teaching 28 pupils with four grades and in a three-teacher school one teacher could be teaching 34 pupils in three classes.”
For mother of three Frances Pyburn, St James school is a family tradition. Her children are the third generation in her family to attend the school, which dates back to the 1870s. She said the area would be forever changed if it lost the 21-pupil national school.
“It would be devastating to the community if we were amalgamated. My eldest son who is in secondary school has dyspraxia. The small numbers at primary meant a lot to him.”
John McKenna, editor of the Bridgestone Guides, a guest speaker at the meeting, said any stealth moves to impose cuts on rural schools would destroy areas such as west Cork.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Education said yesterday that as part of the budget decisions announced last December, the number of pupils required to gain and retain a teaching post in small primary schools would be gradually increased between September 2012 and September 2014.