Seamount College the answer to school places crisis?

A Kinvara school could be the answer to a shortage of second-level places across South Galway identified by the Commission on Schools Accommodation, according to a group of campaigners in the area.
RESCUE, the umbrella group established to campaign for the retention of secondary education in Kinvara, believes that Seamount College is ideally positioned to offer a solution to South Galway’s secondary school accommodation shortage.

In spring 2007, as part of its campaign to save Seamount College, the group identified and made public a looming educational crisis in South Galway.
They highlighted the fact that rapid population growth in the area, 30% growth from 2001 to 2006, would mean that over 2,500 students would require secondary education in South Galway and North Clare by 2011 and that there were only 1,700 places available.
“From recent reports in the local press, it is clear that the reality of this situation is now upon us, with Calasanctius College, Oranmore, forced to turn away in large numbers pupils for the next school term,” said Jane Joyce, spokesperson for RESCUE.
“The department’s own Commission on Schools Accommodation acknowledged in its report on schools’ accommodations in 2007 that there was an immediate need for further secondary school places in South Galway. It recommended ‘a co-educational post-primary school for around 800 students should be provided’ in Kinvara, with capacity to accept some students from the Oranmore and Clarinbridge area. A ministerial commitment to act on these recommendations followed,” explained Ms Joyce.
RESCUE recently learned from the Department of Education and Science that a lease agreement, to run for a 10-year period, between the department and the Mercy Order is now in place.
“We welcome this agreement and thank both parties for their hard work and commitment in bringing it to fruition. With the school’s future secure, Seamount College can offer a solution to the shortage of secondary school places,” she continued.
Last September, the school’s educational capacity increased considerably with the incorporation of the large convent building, Seamount House, into the school campus. “This, taken with the security of the lease agreement, means that Seamount College is ideally placed to offer an immediate solution to the crisis in school places in South Galway. This was reflected in the huge turnout at the college’s information evening for prospective new students recently,” Ms Joyce claimed.
“Parents, teachers and the wider community welcome the securing of Seamount College’s future.
“We all look forward to the day when it opens its doors to a co-ed intake and boys from the area will, at last, be able to attend their local secondary school,” Jane concluded.