nan

Quinn: there is a problem with schooling in rural ireland

The Minister for Education has moved to calm fears over the future of small schools. Speaking ahead of a visit to several facilities in county Clare this morning, Ruairi Quinn says the situation needs to be dealt with on an individual basis. Increasing teacher pupil ratio's have raised serious concerns over the viability of one and two teacher units - particularly in West Clare. However, speaking to Clare FM, Minister Quinn says he is welcoming calls for negotiations with representatives. "There is a problem in rural Ireland, there is a difficulty around isolated communities that nee to have a school if that community is to survive - and that's a totally different situation to one where you might have two or three schools within a couple of kilometres of each other" he said. "It's not a black and white issue where you've big schools and small schools - you've got a range of different schools in different communities". "And we need to have that discussions school by school, so to speak" he added.