The possible amalgamation of two Kilkenny City schools gets Education Minister’s backing

”It makes sense that John’s Parish should have a new school” – that’s the word from the principal of St John’s Senior School.

The Minister of Education visited the Ballybought Street facility this afternoon to discuss the amalgamation of St John’s senior and junior schools.

Speaking to KCLR News, Brian Roche says it’s fantastic to get the backing from the minister noting “We’re in the process of talking about amalgamation and we’ve applied to the Department of Education to amalgamate St John’s Junior and Senior schools and we got a commitment from him, he’s fully behind that and that he’ll be instructing his officials accordingly. But he did give a commitment that that is what he wants to see and that it makes sense in terms of demographics, it makes sense that John’s Parish should have a new school and that school should have the capacity to cater for the people from that area”.

Commenting on the committee’s vision Minister McHugh says “They’re looking at the next twenty to thirty years for this part of this side of the city, they’re looking at sustainability, they’re looking at traffic congestion, they’re looking at how they could have a sustainable education primary system for the next twenty to thirty to fifty years so they’re very ambitious in what they’re doing, I also think they’re very realistic”.