Educate Together has won the right to establish and run second-level schools

Educate Together, the multidenominational schools group, has won the right to establish and run second-level schools after a lengthy campaign.

In a highly significant move, Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn will today announce the Department of Education will grant recognition to the group at its agm in Wexford.

The decision means parents will have a new choice of school at second level. At present, most second-level schools are run by Catholic religious orders. The alternative is mainly vocational schools and community and comprehensive schools.

Educate Together currently controls 58 schools at primary level, 27 of which are in the greater Dublin Area. The group has seen spectacular growth in recent years. It has also played a pivotal role in reaching out to immigrant communities in Dublin.

Until now, the group has been unable to respond to the huge demand among parents for the same kind of multidenominational education at second level. Parent and community groups have been actively campaigning for Educate Together second-level schools for years.

Last year, the Department of Education awarded the patronage of a new second-level school in Gorey to Wexford VEC after a poll among parents. More than 950 parents in Gorey voted for the Educate Together option.

The move was seen as a reversal for Educate Together, but its campaign for second-level recognition has gained momentum since the change of government, as Labour has long backed the move.

Parent groups in several areas including Gorey, Wicklow/south Dublin, Lucan in Co Dublin, north Dublin, Cork and Limerick have been active in campaigning for the second-level schools.

Last year, a TCD research study found 90 per cent of parents with children in Educate Together schools would send their children to second-level schools run by the multidenominational group.

Educate Together has stressed it wants to deliver a new model of second-level education within a more child-friendly environment. It has been critical of the dominance of the CAO points system and rote learning within the current senior cycle.

According to last year’s survey, parents in Educate Together schools say their main priority is social and emotional development of pupils, rather than high academic achievement. Only 35 per cent of parents with children in Educate Together schools believe academic results are the best indication of a “good” school.

Educate Together promises its second-level schools will “nurture critical and creative thinkers, problem-solvers, effective communicators and innovators. Our schools will operate as truly democratic learning communities, empowering students, teachers and parents to work together towards educational aims in an atmosphere of equality and respect.’’

Educate Together opened its first school, the Dalkey school project, in 1978. The core principles of Educate Together are that schools are multidenominational, co-educational, learner-centred and democratically run.

Its campaign for second-level recognition has been backed by several leading education figures including Prof Áine Hyland, former professor of education at UCC; Prof Sheelagh Drudy, chair of education, UCD; Rose Tully, and the National Parents Council (post-primary). Board members of Educate Together include former education minister Mary O’Rourke and former DCU president Ferdinand von Prondzynski.

Emer Nowlan, head of education and network development at Educate Together, has said parents at the schools “are used to an environment where everyone’s background is equally respected, and where pupils, parents and teachers all participate in every aspect of school life”.

Irish Times