This article is from page 11 of the 2006-12-19 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 11 JPG
THE PARENTS’ council of Seamount College, faced with the threatened closure of their children’s school, have come up with facts and figures supporting their case that the school should be given a reprieve.
The parents carried out an extensive analysis of the second level educational needs in the Kinvara area and, a spokesman said, their conclusion “is that to lose Seamount College, a quality school with an existing educational infrastructure, will be a catastrophe not just for the community but also for the wider area”. Meanwhile, the school principal is understood to have made an appeal to the trustees, the Sisters of Mercy, not to close the doors.
The analysis carried out by the parents included looking at the latest Census results which confirm the strong population growth in the area.
They also took into consideration existing and future planning permission. “Permission has been granted for 1,216 dwellings within six miles of Seamount College in the last five years and there is enough High Density Residential Zoned Land within 1km of Seamount for another 1200 houses.
“Already within the primary schools of the area, before any of these new houses are built, there are over 450 children that will require education over the next few years,” the spokesman said.
“Neighbouring schools in Oranmore and Gort are at, or near, capacity. We believe that there is a moral and political imperative that we in Kinvara and its environs are afforded the same opportunity that other communities have enjoyed – to move from a single sex school to a modern mixed model to cater for all the children of the catchment. The answer to our educational requirements is not to bus our 500 children out of our catchment across catchment borders to neighbouring schools that are already at or near capacity,” the spokesman said.
The parents say that if the government’s National Spatial Strategy is promoting growth of the N18 GalwayLimerick corridor as a counterweight to Dublin, “why allow the educational infrastructure to be dismantled? Particularly in an area that rapid growth has already started”.
In support of the argument for the school, parents also point to the fact that population growth in the area was 38 per cent over the last four years. In the Kinvara catchment area alone there will be 500 children requiring secondary education by 2010.
“If you add in the three schools that have a strong tradition of attending Seamount College that number rises to 700 children,” the spokesman said.