Catholic officials rein in behind amalgamation proposal

Catholic officials rein in behind amalgamation proposal

16 May 2018

CATHOLIC clergy, principals and politicians have dramatically united to support the controversial creation of an all ability co-educational college in Downpatrick.

The Diocese of Down and Connor is the latest high profile Catholic organisation to call on local parents to back this “once in a generation opportunity”.

A Diocesan spokesman has followed the De La Salle Brothers and the Bishop of Derry, Donal McKeown, who have sought to convince families that the new school is, in the words of the Bishop, the “right thing to do”.

In a statement issued to the Down Recorder yesterday afternoon, the spokesman described the ‘super school’, which would cater for 1,600 

pupils through the merger of St Mary’s High School, De La Salle High School, St Patrick’s Grammar School and St Columba’s College, Portaferry, as a “welcome opportunity to open new academic, pastoral and extra-curricular opportunities to the young people of the area”.

He also revealed that the three Downpatrick schools had committed to the establishment of the single school in Downpatrick in 2016. But church representatives are now understood to be struggling to get St Patrick’s back on board following a recent high profile campaign of objection to the proposal.

Despite the grammar school’s agreement that one school is the best option for Downpatrick, it is understood objection has grown from the realisation it will be merged equally with the other schools, rather than being expanded to absorb the smaller secondary schools.

The Catholics Principals’ Association, which represents 230 Catholic schools, yesterday echoed church representatives in support of the scheme and warned that “the heightened language and dire prediction” of objectors should not “overshadow reasonable and reasoned arguments of others”.

South Down MP Chris Hazzard, his Sinn Fein colleague MLA Emma Rogan and SDLP MLA Colin McGrath, who have been accused by objectors of abandoning their voters by backing the merger, have also spoken out for the first time about their support for the project.

Mr Hazzard said he believed the quality of education “rather than the future of institutions” should be the motivating factor in any plan to amalgamate post primary schools.

He added that everyone should aspire to the provision of “first class education to all the children of this area.”

“I share the CCMS view that the best way to achieve this is through the four-school amalgamation,” he said. “I believe the vast majority of people in South Down also believe this to be the case. This would create one sustainable school, capable of meeting the educational needs, aptitudes, interests and aspirations of all pupils in the area up to GCSE and post-16.

“Of course there will be concerns and questions around the future of staff, transport, provision and education standards and these should all be answered as part of the consultation process. There are also lessons to be learned as to how the CCMS has handled this process.

“However, the quality of education offered to our young people, rather than the future of institutions must be our focus in the time ahead and I would urge the people of South Down to engage with the process on that basis”.

Mr McGrath welcomed the move to remove academic selection, which he described as “that tortuous process that segregates, labels and demotivates many of our precious 10 and 11 year-old children”.

“A new enlarged school in Downpatrick will bring many opportunities,” he said. “For many it will mean the same education in the same place by the same education in the same place by the same teachers - but for others it will also mean no stigma, no difference, no exclusion - just equal opportunity for all.

“That was a core and founding mantra of Catholic education and has as much relevance today in terms of social equality as it did 100 years ago in terms of accessing education.

Echoing Mr McGrath, Ms Rogan said local education needed reformed and insisted the change was “not to be feared”.

“This proposed model is based on other mergers that have worked well,” she said.

Speaking on behalf of the Catholic Principals Association, Ms Carmel Dunn said there were no “moral, ethical, educational or social grounds” for continuing academic selection”.

She also rejected “the veiled threats” of objectors who have warned that families in Downpatrick will leave the Catholic system if the merger goes ahead in preference for Down High School.

“That some foresee and forecast a potential drift to other sectors in the event of reform is not at all surprising. We have listened to these veiled threats for years,” she said.

“If some parents feel they must abandon Catholic schools in order to avail of a selective system that is regrettable, but it is also their choice. Some of them are doing it in any case.

“Such threats are not the grounds for what the Catholic system does. They most certainly should not be an alibi for what we fail to do.

“The right thing is to ensure that our students are prepared for the real world, rather than placed in narrow confines on the basis of outmoded testing and 1940s ideas of human abilities and intelligence.”