This article is from page 14 of the 2013-01-01 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 14 JPG
A CAMPAIGN to save a number of small rural schools in Clare got underway in March, with a number of organisations mobilising to fight against government cutbacks in the education sector.
West Clare group Rural Resettlement Ireland (RRI) emerged as the organisation at the vanguard of a new campaign to help West Clare national schools in Querrin and Doonaha, Boston in North Clare and another school in Mayo.
This move comes after RRI was directly approached by the schools.
“We had four phonecalls over the past week from four different schools, looking to see if we could help them secure students to secure their future,” said Ailish Connolly of RRI in March.
“Those schools are in Doonaha, Querrin and Boston in Clare and another in Mayo. As a result, Rural Resettlement is now doing a specific, targeted campaign assisting schools looking for children. We are advertising those schools and the local communities that they are in,”
Rural Resettlement Ireland was set up by Kilbaha-based Jim Connolly, 21 years ago. In 2005, an RRI initiative to build four houses in Tullycrine helped save the national school there from closure, while the new campaign comes despite severe cut-backs in the organisation that has seen its full-time staff numbers cut from five to one in recent years.
“Our own budget has been cut and cut and cut but what we still have to do is try and get the message out there in Dublin that rural resettlement is an option for them. The need is stronger than ever,” said Ms Connolly in March.
“Schools are very much aware now that to survive they need families and therefore they need to forward plan. Thirty nine is the magic number for schools to hold onto two teachers.”
The McCarthy Report, if implemented in Clare, would see the closure of all schools in the county with under 50 pupils, a cut-off point that puts the future of many rural schools in the county, but according to RRI schools under threat are determined to fight back.
“The schools that contacted us are sourcing houses for Rural Resettlement to have a look at in the areas where the schools are located,” said Ms Connolly. “It has now become a campaign to try and save those schools. Rural Resettlement are going to do everything to try and get families to move to these areas to save the schools.”