School under-resourced, children suffering 2005-07-01

G aelscoil Cholmcille has been in temporary accommodation in a football club in Santry in North Dublin for the last nine years because the much-promised primary school has never been built. The rooms in this club are very small and each year the classes get bigger which results in chronic overcrowding. It is impossible for two adults to walk past each other in the very narrow corridor upstairs without bumping into one another. Recent hearing tests for the children had to be carried out in this corridor as there simply was no room available in the building.

A new resource teacher is starting in September despite the fact that there is no classroom for her. Perhaps she will be expected to conduct classes in the disabled toilet as happened recently in a primary school in Donegal? The only problem with this arrangement is that Gaelscoil Cholmcille does not have a disabled toilet. Indeed, the toilet facilities are grossly inadequate and small children have to queue to use them.

Gaelscoil Cholmcille Action Group has been campaigning vigorously in an effort to provide a safe and secure environment for the education of our children. The most recent protest was at the Dáil, where dozens of 'Desperate housewives for Gaelscoil Cholmcille' gathered to express their disappointment that their children had no proper school building.

We are indeed desperate! Desperate for the Minister for Education to listen to us. Desperate for a new school for our children. Desperate enough to put forward a candidate in the next General Election, to stand on the schools issue. Those voters desperate to get rid of desperate politicians can vote for the Gaelscoil Cholmcille Action Group candidate. Desperate politicians ignore the pleas of desperate housewives at their peril.

Campaign postcards are available at Gaelscoil Cholmcille, Larkhill Road, Dublin 9