Schools to span the border

First it was cross-border health, now children are set to benefit from cross-border education.

Families living in Northern Ireland and the Republic are to be consulted about sending their children to schools over the border. Arrangements

could be in place as early as September 2013.

The North's education minister, John O'Dowd, has said cross-border co-operation is an accepted and growing practice and now parents along the

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border are to be surveyed about formalizing the practice.

"We do have cross-border travel in terms of third level and higher level education," said Minister O'Dowd.

"We have growing cross-border travel in terms of health care, now we are looking at education. How can we improve the service in terms of education for border communities?"

One of those schools hoping to benefit is St. Mary's High School, near Belleek in County Fermanagh. It's one of the smallest post-primary schools in the North with just 132 pupils.

A consultation is due to begin over plans to close it. However, school principal Michael Burns believes a cross-border partnership could secure its future.

He said they had approached two schools in Ballyshannon and Bundoran in County Donegal, to form a partnership. He said the schools had

expressed their interest in the idea.

Although there are two different education systems operating on the island of Ireland, he believes that pupils and parents could make the choice between studying for GCSEs and A levels in Northern Ireland or Junior and Leaving Certificates in the Republic.

If the plan works it would be a model for other border schools which are being threatened with closure because of falling pupil numbers.

 

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