The Clare-based President of the INTO fears unbalanced regional development will see Clare’s school-going population continue to decline.
Figures released by the Department of Education reveal that schools across the Banner County had the biggest fall in enrolment numbers nationally in 2018.
A total of 13,602 pupils were registered in primary and post-primary schools in this county last year – a drop of 80 on the 2017 figure.
There was strong growth, however, in the centres around Dublin as well as the university cities of Limerick, Galway and Cork.
Corofin native Joe Killeen, who is principal of Lough Cutra National School in Gort, has been telling Clare FM’s James Mulhall that this is down to younger people feeling forced out of rural areas to the cities for work:
