New education strategy could hit local schools

New education strategy could hit local schools

19 October 2016

AMBITIOUS education reform plans are set to hit dozens of local schools over the next three years.

Education Minister Peter Weir yesterday unveiled the plans, which includes a commitment to phasing out composite classes in primary schools and to insist that sixth forms have an enrolment of at least 100 pupils.

The move is central to the new Draft Strategic Area Plan for School Provision 2017-2020, which was yesterday launched for an eight-week consultation period.

It aims to abolish composite classes with more than two year groups by 2020 in a bid to ensure children are eventually taught in a single year group setting. Many rural primary schools have composite classrooms across Down District.

It also includes an insistence on a minimum sixth form enrolment to guarantee students access to a wide range of subjects.

Accepting that some schools might close as a result of the plan, Mr Weir, speaking at Stormont yesterday, said he was “prepared to take those difficult decisions.”

Describing the need to reform schools as “emotive and difficult”, he said the status quo was not an option.

“We need to tackle unsustainable provision in all sectors,” he said.

“This will sometimes require difficult decisions to be made and will require mature discussions and approaches from everyone involved in education. To do nothing or do little isn’t an option.”

If the new plan is approved in mid-December, the Minister said one year action plans for each area will be developed for the next three years to begin the move to more sustainable provision.

South Down Assemblyman Colin McGrath, who is his party’s education spokesman, said the announcement had already caused anxiety, particularly in rural schools.

“It is from bitter experience that rural communities have come to expect that it is their primary schools that will be unfairly targeted in this shake up and that this course of action will only serve to further isolate rural communities,” he said.

“I am also concerned about the assertion that sixth forms must contain at least 100 pupils to remain viable. 

“This will concern schools that do not meet this threshold and with the entitlement framework, schools in rural communities will struggle to meet this target.”