THE multi-denominational group Educate Together has opened 12 new primary schools this week, the latest in Lucan East in Dublin yesterday.
The group is now a leading provider of primary schools for the Department of Education.
In all, there are 56 schools run by the group in the State.
The other new Educate Together schools opening this week are in Drogheda, Skerries, Swords, Belmayne, Maynooth, Greystones, Kilcolgan, Carlow, Wexford, Midleton and Carrigaline.
Most of these new schools are opening in state-of-the-art new buildings. They will add over 5,000 school places to the Educate Together network.
The group expects to open 45 further schools over the coming years, when an increase of over 100,000 in the number of primary school pupils is expected.
Lucan East is the fifth Educate Together national school in Lucan and brings the potential capacity of the group in the area to over 2,000 primary school places. The group also hopes to expand into second-level education.
Educate Together’s progress comes as the County Dublin Vocational Education Committee (VEC) opened the first State-run community national schools in west Dublin this week.
Pupils in these schools will take a general values and morality programme, as discussions continue about the shape of religious instruction in the schools.
Educate Together schools provide an ethical education programme, and they make school facilities available to any group of parents that so wishes to run faith-formation classes outside school hours.
According to Paul Rowe of Educate Together: “This avoids any situation in which children are separated on religious grounds during the school day and fully respects the religious rights of parents, staff and children.”
Mr Rowe congratulated the Minister and the new rapidly developing areas unit of the department for the success of the programme. The unit was established in response to the school enrolment crisis in Balbriggan, Co Dublin, and other areas last year.
Opening the Lucan East school, Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe said over €586 million had been allocated to the 2008 school building programme.
“This is an unprecedented level of capital investment, which reflects the commitment of the Government to continue its programme of sustained investment in primary and post-primary schools,” said Mr O’Keeffe.
“It builds on the delivery of 7,800 building projects under the last National Development Plan, which resulted in both new schools being built and the refurbishment of many existing schools.”
Since the introduction of the permanent accommodation scheme in 2003, more than €100 million had been allocated to schools to provide permanent buildings in place of prefabs.
This, he said, had resulted in an additional 625 classrooms and 275 resource rooms.