7th December 2007
Councillor Oliver Tully, Chairman of the County Louth Vocational Education Committee (VEC), recently welcomed the announcement by the Department of Education and Science to build a new primary school at Termon Abbey / Aston Village in Drogheda. The Department have given a commitment to build a new 8 (eight) classroom school on a site that has been reserved for a Primary School in the Northern Environs Plan for Drogheda. Students will be sitting down in this new school for their lessons as early as next September 2008, according to the Department. This school will be the first primary school to be built on one of the 3 (three) sites already designated for Primary Schools within the Northern Environs Plan area.
It is still not clear who will act as Trustees of this new school, that is who will be responsible for the management of the school, up until recently the Church, in general, have acted as Trustees for Primary Schools. The Church may not have the resources required to continue in this aspect of our education system especially on green field sites such as those in Drogheda.. This was highlighted in the recent past when the Department of Education and Science requested the County Dublin VEC to act as Trustees for a Primary School on a pilot basis. This scheme is proving very successful.
The County Louth VEC, in a written submission on the Northern Environs Plan for Drogheda indicated that they would be prepared to act as Trustees for the Primary Schools if requested by the Department of Education and Science. The VEC have vast experience in the field of education. At present they manage a number of Post Primary Schools in County Louth as well various other types of education centres and programmes.
