A CROSS-border learning community to meet the needs of children in rural Fermanagh and Donegal would not work, the education minister has suggested.
It is two years since St Mary's High in Brollagh in Fermanagh was spared closure and education chiefs were tasked with exploring ways of working with schools in Leitrim and Donegal.
The Council for Catholic Maintained Schools (CCMS) had recommended that St Mary's shut as part of a review of post-primary education.
At that time it had just 121 pupils, considerably fewer than the 500 required to be "viable".
Accessibility is a major issue for children at St Mary's, however. If it shut, pupils would be expected to travel into Enniskillen. While the school has an Enniskillen postcode, it is closer to Donegal than the county town.
The North West Education Action Group proposed the creation of an area learning community to cover north west Fermanagh and south Donegal as an alternative.
Richie McPhillips of the SDLP, an assembly member for Fermanagh and South Tyrone, has now tabled a series of questions on the future of St Mary's.
In one, he asked education minister Peter Weir whether CCMS and the former Western Education and Library Board ever brought forward a pilot scheme.
"CCMS submitted an outline proposal for cross border educational arrangements for the area as an alternative to the closure of St Mary’s High School, Brollagh," Mr Weir replied.
"My officials agree with the CCMS analysis that a cross border approach would not meet required quality thresholds, nor would such an approach be cost effective. I have asked CCMS to engage with St Mary's on the proposal and on the appropriate steps that should be taken for education provision for children in the Brollagh area."
Before it was asked to take a fresh look at the matter, CCMS considered two potential cross-border models. It initially rejected a partnership model involving schools in the Republic because each component school would have to be sustainable in its own right.
