A decade ago, St Patrick’s Cathedral Grammar School - the oldest fee-charging secondary school in the State - joined the free scheme. Will others in the private sector follow?
A decade ago, St Patrick’s Cathedral Grammar School - the oldest fee-charging secondary school in the State - joined the free scheme. Should others in the private sector follow?
This year will mark a decade since St Patrick’s Cathedral Grammar School – which says it is the oldest second-level school in the State, founded in 1547 – joined the free scheme. Why did they do it, how has it gone and what can other schools learn from their experience? “It was a big deal,” says Gill. “We had some funding from the Government for decades. We had been fee-paying for centuries. It was a complicated transition. Schools like ours employed more than teachers, and we privately employed some teachers using the fees. There was a lot of concern about teacher jobs and livelihoods.
At the time, the Department of Education allowed St Patrick’s to remain over quota, albeit on a strict timeline. It is likely that, should a future government follow through on withdrawing State support for fee-paying schools, there would also be a phased transition, allowing the schools to increase their pupil numbers within an agreed timeline.
“One of the benefits we saw was the removal of a barrier to education,” says Gill. “As we have an inclusive ethos, it meant that we could more fully realise it. Our school has long had links with St Patrick’s Cathedral itself, but we have never seen ourselves as just a Church of Ireland school; we have always been here to serve the local community, with a broad range of religions and nationalities in a diverse student body that matches our ethos of inclusion.
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