| Co Louth VEC Education Amendment Bill |
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CEO of Co. Louth VEC, Dr. Pádraig Kirk, this week welcomed the publication of the Education (Amendment) Bill 2010 by the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills, Mary Coughlan, T.D. The new Bill provides a legislative framework to allow Vocational Education Committees to become involved in primary education provision, while also making a number of other important changes to the Education and Teaching Council Acts. Publishing the Education (Amendment) Bill, the Tánaiste said, ‘the changing shape of Irish society is placing new and complex demands on our education system in responding to the diverse needs of our communities; a new model of community national school seeks to meet the need for a new form of plurality of education provision within the framework of a single school setting’. The Minister continued, ‘this Bill provides for the establishment of community national schools under VEC patronage and, in certain circumstances, for a VEC to become patron or joint patron of an existing primary school’.
New Community National Schools, which are established under VEC patronage, have already been established in counties Dublin, Meath and Kildare. In welcoming the new Education Bill Dr. Kirk said that Co. Louth VEC “has an extensive proven track record in providing high quality second-level, further, adult and community education to the people of Co. Louth over the last eighty years …… at this point VEC involvement in primary education provision in the county is just a natural next step”. Responding to the publication of the new bill Dr. Kirk stated that, ‘Co. Louth has experienced significant growth in its population in recent years, especially in the urban areas of the county, and for this reason alone there are grounds for the establishment of new primary schools to cater for the increased numbers’. In this context, he added, “it is the intention of Co. Louth VEC to work with relevant communities in establishing the new Community National School model in the county …… the publication of the Education (Amendment) Bill brings this one step closer to reality’. He continued that “Co. Louth VEC would also be happy to engage in constructive dialogue with the Department, and other education partners, to facilitate patronage establishment and/or transfer where local parents are in favour of it”.
The VEC intends to engage with the people of Co. Louth via a series of public meetings during the current school year in the context of its aim to enhance the provision of all-Irish education in the county. These meetings might also be appropriate, said Dr. Kirk, for Co. Louth VEC to inform parents of the new community national school model of schooling. |
