Navan principals to meet VEC on new community national school

The administrator of St Mary's Parish in Navan has denied that there was any snub intended when the principals and boards of management chairpersons of 10 local schools failed to turn up for a meeting this week at which plans for a new model of primary education - a community national school - were to be unveiled by the Meath VEC. The meeting went ahead with principals of six schools from outside the town. Fr Declan Hurley said that while representatives of the schools had been invited, it had been explained to the VEC that most of the voluntary chairpersons of boards would be working at 3.30 on Mondays. Instead, the Navan principals and chairpersons have a scheduled meeting next Wednesday night and have invited the VEC CEO, Peter Kierans, to attend and brief them on the proposed new school. A number of the 10 school principals in Navan town have expressed some disquiet about the Department of Education's plan for the community national school idea. There is said to be no idealogical bias against a school which would cater for pupils of all faiths and none but questions have been raised about the need for the new institution. These principals and the VEC have divergent views on the statistics being used to justify the building of the school on a site at the old St Martha's College in Johnstown. In the VEC version, there will be an increase of almost 2,000 students in primary education in the town over the six years from 2008. It stated that this means there will be a need for 70 new classrooms by 2014. It also says that the projections of pupil numbers is based on Department of Social and Family Affairs statistics. Mr Kierans has claimed that two factors led to the big increase in the expected rise in demand for primary school places (and later a secondary school) in Navan - the 'baby boomers' who were born in the wake of Pope John Paul 11's visit to Ireland in 1979 are now having their own children, and the creation of a veritable 'new town' at Johnstown. The 10 principals and their chairpersons are expected to challenge these figures at next week's meeting although Fr Hurley yesterday (Tuesday) seemed to accept that the new community national school was "a done deal" and that "there was nothing to fight about". The community national school is a relatively new phenomenon in Irish education. The Government is increasingly aware that we are a more diverse republic than we used to be and that there is a need to create a school system which will reflect that. At present, there are about 3,000 schools throughout the country under the patronage of the Catholic church, about 300 under the patronage of the Church of Ireland and 70-90 operating under the auspices of Educate Together. The model of school proposed for Navan by the Department of Education would come under the patronage of Meath VEC. This same model is being piloted in two areas of Dublin. Mr Kierans said yesterday that the VEC had been chosen as the vehicle to operate this new model of school but insisted that it posed no threat to existing schools. "We want to emphasise that we are a partner, rather than a competitor," he said. Fr Hurley told the Meath Chronicle that there was no ideological bias against the new model of school being proposed. "We all understand that we are a more diverse society than we used to be. There will be diversity in the schools and we welcome that," he added. However, he said many people would find it hard to understand how the proposal for the new community national school had been pushed forward with such alacrity when the local authorties connected with Navan's Scoil Naomh Eoin had been trying to get a new school for the last seven years, without success. "The school has been operating out of prefabs. We had €300,000 for the site and another €300,000 for servicing it yet we can't get it through the system while, at the same time, the VEC waves a magic wand and a school will appear." He said he would find it very interesting to hear what kind of lobbying the VEC was able to do in order to get its Navan school so quickly. To this, Mr Kierans responded that there were no special lobbying powers involved. "We had no special leverage. We are a State agent and the State decided on this model of school and told us to get on with it," he said.