Many Mayo families still lack school choice

Educate Together is calling on the Department of Education and Youth to live up to the promise made repeatedly over the last three years – to launch a national survey of parental preference in school patronage.

Mayo currently has three Educate Together schools, all at primary level. Newtownwhite ETNS, located between Ballina and Killala, was the first of these to be established, changing ethos to become an Educate Together school in 2014. Castlebar ETNS and Westport ETNS were founded in 2016 and 2019 respectively, with both eagerly awaiting completion of their permanent buildings.

Educate Together hopes to work with more Mayo families and communities in the future to expand access to equality-based education in the county, at both primary and second-level.

Now, Educate Together is asking the government to: formally announce the survey, including a specific launch date ; facilitate a public discourse and national information campaign about school patronage and multi-denominational education; and announce and ring-fence appropriate, adequate funding for schools wishing to transfer patronage.

Educate Together is Ireland’s largest and longest-running multi-denominational patron body. There are currently 118 schools in the Educate Together schools’ network, with 97 at primary level. In the past decade, Educate Together has opened 50 schools in response to ever-growing demand for its unique, inclusive and democratic model of education.

As a democratic organisation, Educate Together believes that parents being able to have a say in how their local school is run is vitally important, a right that is being denied to them by continuous delays in the DEY survey.

Edward Platt, Educate Together’s schools development officer, elaborated on the importance of enabling parents to have their voices heard.

He said: “Although there has been a very encouraging expansion of the Educate Together network over the past 10 years, government policy now makes opening new schools incredibly difficult, with local parents having far less input in the process. It is vital that the Department of Education and Youth formally announce the long-awaited survey immediately and give parents agency in shaping what education looks like in their local community.”

In 2024, Educate Together welcomed St. Mary’s in Dublin into its network after families and staff at the school expressed their preference to change patronage and the school became Paradise Place ETNS. Educate Together has considerable experience in patronage transfer, having also supported other religious schools to transition to equality-based patronage.

Mr. Platt continued: “We know that there are many people who are interested to see if equality-based, multi-denominational education would be the right fit for their school communities. Most Educate Together schools are oversubscribed, and we frequently receive queries from families who have no school choice in their community.

“Every family in Ireland deserves the option of an Educate Together school if that is the education they want for their children.”

Educate Together hopes that the proposed survey will allow these parents’ voices to be heard, and that the Department will take appropriate action where demand for change is identified so that school choice will become available in more towns, cities and villages across Ireland.

Parents are encouraged to contact their local TD and highlight school choice, reconfiguration and the delay of the parents’ survey as important issues for them. People who would like to see their local school reconfigured to a multi-denominational/equality-based ethos can also contact Educate Together at schooltransfers@educatetogether.ie.

Educate Together schools are state-funded, child-centred and democratically run. They teach the national curriculum, and ethical education is taught in place of religion classes. Faith formation classes are offered in Educate Together schools outside of school hours.