A RURAL primary school will re-open for at least another year after a delay in taking a decision on its planned closure.
Catholic education chiefs wanted to close the small Gortnagarn PS outside Omagh by the end of August.
A `development proposal for closure' was published in January but still no final decision has been made by education minister John O'Dowd.
However, with just six weeks left before the proposed end date, and it is now being accepted that it is unlikely to close.
Gortnagarn PS is a Catholic maintained school situated in the hamlet of Gortnagarn, three miles from Omagh town centre. It celebrated its fiftieth anniversary just before the summer break.
The Council for Catholic Maintained Schools (CCMS) proposed the school would "close with effect from 31 August 2015, or as soon as possible thereafter".
It was initially suggested that both Gortnagarn and St Eugene's, Tircur - located about two miles apart and which both serve the Cappagh parish in Co Tyrone - would both close.
Campaigners opposed to the plans said, while enrolments were in decline, this had been sparked by speculation of closure rather than any dramatic reduction in birthrate. They asked CCMS to consider a shared education model involving the nearby non-Catholic Dunmullan PS.
St Eugene's was told it would remain open late last year, but CCMS told governors and staff that the proposal to close Gortnagarn remained in place.
There does not appear to be enough time for this to happen, however, and four new pupils have already been accepted into P1 starting in September.
Enrolments had slumped from 52 in 2010 to 27 last year. Having admitted just one new P1 pupil in both 2012 and 2013, numbers jumped to four both this year and last.
The publication of a proposal for closure typically results in the school in question being shut down.
Up until 2013, when Mr O'Dowd rejected a proposal to shut down Dundonald High School, every previous development proposal for closure was approved.
Since then, the minister has also thrown out bids to close Malvern PS in the Shankill area of Belfast and Crumlin Integrated College.
All this means closure is no longer accepted as an inevitability.
Meanwhile, a proposal to shut down Altayeskey PS in Sixtowns Co Derry has been "withdrawn".
The CCMS, acting on behalf of the trustees of the parish of Draperstown, had sought to close the school from August 31.
