Record number of Educate Together schools to open this year

Educate Together to open 12 schools across the country from this September

Seven new national and four second-level Educate Together schools are being opened this term, the highest number it has opened in one year.

A new 'divestment' national school in Westport, Co Mayo is also opening its doors to students this September.

The new national schools include South Lee ETNS, Cork city, Goatstown Stillorgan ETNA, Dublin 13 ETNS, Harold's Cross ETNS, Killester Raheny Clontarf ETNS, Leixlip ETNS and Newtownmountkennedy ETNS, Co Wicklow.

The second-level schools are Drogheda ETSS, Dublin North East ETSS, Galway ETSS and Wicklow ETSS. The new schools bring the total number of Educate Together schools to 109 (92 national and 17 second-level).

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In a statement, Educate Together said none of the 12 new schools will be opening in their permanent accommodation.

"This has become a systemic problem, impacting on almost every newly opening school in Ireland. Many of the schools which Educate Together has opened in the last decade remain in temporary accommodation, awaiting the delivery of permanent solutions. The result is unnecessary and increased pressure on school management and a waste of public funds."

Educate Together said it was granted patronage of the new schools “largely on the basis of need for greater diversity of provision and increasing parental demand its model of education”.

“Educate Together also recognises the commitment of local campaigners who worked hard to advocate for Educate Together’s model of education for their communities,” it said.

Sarah Burns

Sarah Burns

Sarah Burns is a reporter for The Irish Times