Campaigners to meet over Inis Meáin school

Campaigners for the primary school on Inis Meáin will hold a meeting with TDs in Dublin next week, pleading for a second teacher.

In September, the school faces the prospect of one teacher for nine pupils – ranging from infants to sixth class.

The campaigners have warned that unless a satisfactory primary school education for islanders, its people and heritage will ‘disappear like the Blasket Islands’.

Scoil Náisiúnta Inis Meáin’s only teacher is Principal Orlaith Breathnach since it lost its second teacher in 2012 when enrolment numbers fell to six.

A spokesperson said: “We lost our second teacher in 2012 when our numbers fell to six pupils. We had eight enrolled the following September – the amount needed to keep the second teacher. We made an appeal but we were not successful.

“There will be an enrolment of nine pupils this September – with children in every class from infants to sixth class.

“Half of these children have no Irish, and one child, from Belarus, has no English either. One child has a heart problem and is not allowed to play any sports.

“The school is not entitled to any extra help outside of the five [General Allocation or English as an additional language] hours a week. There’s no teacher available on the island to fill these hours and no teacher will travel from the mainland for one day a week,” the spokesperson said.

Campaigners will hold a meeting in Buswells Hotel in Dublin next Wednesday from 1pm to 3pm, which is open to all TDs.

“The primary school plays a crucial role in keeping the community alive in Inis Meáin. There are six young families with children to come to school on the island now and it is essential that they stay if the island is to have any future.

“Therefore, it is crucial that we provide a satisfactory primary school education for them as is available for them on the mainland.

“Unless we take the necessary steps now to protect Inis Meáin’s future, its people, its heritage, its language, island life will disappear as completely as it did on the Blasket Islands,” the spokesperson said.

Concerns were also expressed about lunchtime supervision – the principal is on duty all day without a lunch or toilet break – and the size of the curriculum involved for teaching junior and senior classes.

“In the case of an accident in the yard or school (principal or child), there is no second adult on the premises to take over.

“The Department of Education accepts no responsibility for health and safety in a one teacher school. They are placing that responsibility on the Board of Management. Our BOM has written to the Department stating that we cannot devise a health and safety policy with only one teacher in the school.

“The Health and Safety Authority states that it is the responsibility of the Department of Education to put in place a health and safety policy for one-teacher schools.

“How is it possible to teach senior classes and infants in the same room? A teacher will use different teaching methods for these two groups.

“There is a lot of noise and action with the junior classes, including play, rhymes, song, and games, and they need the teacher’s constant attention.

“The senior classes need a quieter environment to concentrate on their work. There is a vast curriculum for each class to cover and senior classes will need direction and extra help from the principal to deal with learning and language difficulties.

“At the moment the Department is asking schools to submit their thoughts on preserving and promoting the Irish language in Gaeltacht areas and we have submitted our ideas to them.

“Since the foundation of Conradh na Gaeilge, Inis Meáin is famed for its rich heritage and spoken Irish. Scholars and writers have come to Inis Meáin to experience and learn from our living heritage, amongst them Eoghan Mac Neill, John Millington Synge, Douglas Hyde and Patrick Pearse.

“The Irish is still very much alive in Inis Meáin, but the Irish will die out if we are left as a one teacher school,” the spokesperson said.