Dean Maguirc delegation to meet Education Minister

A DELEGATION from Dean Maguirc College will meet with Education Minister Paul Givan today (Thursday) after the oversubscribed Carrickmore school was not allowed to increase its yearly ‘enrolment cap’.

The Department of Education recently refused an application by Dean Maguirc College to increase its annual enrolment from 80 to 100 students. As a result, the Carrickmore school remains capped with an ‘Admissions Number’ of 80 and ‘Enrolment Number’ of 440.

The group, led by West Tyrone MP Órfhlaith Begley, is meeting with the Minister and representatives from the Council of Catholic Maintained Schools (CCMS) in an effort to have the enrolment cap decision revoked.

In support of the Carrickmore school’s case, the West Tyrone MP described the school as an ‘integral part of the fabric of our local community’.

The Sinn Fein MP said, “The school is going from strength-to-strength and received the status of an ‘Outstanding School’ in 2013.

“Due to the steady incline of numbers, the school has continual sought an increase in its enrolment cap to reflect the fact that Year 8 applications have been over-subscribed by 50 per-cent in recent years, necessitating the school to continually seek ‘temporary variations’ to meet the demand.

“This decision has, therefore, come as a major shock, especially given the fact that 21 other schools have been given the go-ahead to increase their cap.”

Ms Begley said that, as well as stepping up pressure to have the decision reversed, Sinn Féin will be using Pat Sheehan MLA’s role as Deputy Chair of the Stormont Education committee in support of the campaign, after he recently visited the Carrickmore school.

Meanwhile, in a letter to the Fermanagh and Omagh District Council, the Chief Executive of the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools (CCMS), Eve Bremner, advised that they understood that the Department’s decision was ‘disappointing’ for the college. But, as it was not a CCMS process, the chief executive stated that any engagement in relation to the matter would therefore be directly with the Department and the school – and not with the council.