UFU fighting for rural schools
A DELEGATION from the Ulster Farmers’ Union, led by president Harry Sinclair, has met with Northern Ireland Assembly Education Committee members to discuss UFU concerns regarding the closure of rural schools.
Harry Sinclair said: “At the meeting, we were able to raise a number of key points with committee members about the potential closure of rural schools in Northern Ireland. Our view is that pupil numbers should not be the major consideration for closing a school. Our rural schools are at the heart of our rural communities, with many performing excellently despite their small scale. Rural schools also provide employment for many people in their local areas and the closure of a rural school will have a very negative effect on any rural community.”
Unfortunately it tends to be the case that if there is a threat of closure to a rural school, many potential pupils will not enrol with the school, fearing the possibility of having to relocate later to another school and this has a snowball effect on the possibility of the school closing and is ultimately damaging to the rural community in question.
Many rural schools overcome their lack of facilities by bringing children to local leisure facilities or secondary school facilities to ensure all our pupils have access to good education facilities; just because the facility is not on the school site does not mean the pupils are not getting the experience”.
The UFU suggested to MLA’s that the government should look at the alternatives to school closures, for example: explore opportunities to use the school facilities to deliver a variety of services to the local community beyond the traditional school day, the possible implementation of a administrative principal to cover a range of rural schools, and also, explore further the concept of shared education to be delivered throughout Northern Ireland.
Mr Sinclair concluded: “After considering the Department of Education’s commitment to the NI Executive’s Rural White Paper Action Plan, we feel that Northern Ireland should instead be committed to protecting rural schools and their unique place in rural communities and seizing the opportunity for them to deliver even more for the community in which they are situated as in the rural white paper it actually focuses on providing access to education in isolated rural areas.”
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Weather for Belfast
Tuesday 21 May 2013
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Temperature: 9 C to 13 C
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