TWO secondary schools - which stand just one mile apart - are to be shut down and replaced by a new college.
The Education Authority (EA) has published three separate but linked `development proposals' designed to reorganise secondary schooling in Carrickfergus.
Both Carrickfergus College and the nearby Downshire School will "discontinue" from September 2018.
A new co-educational, non-selective controlled post-primary school will open in their place.
It is hoped as many as 1,300 pupils will be admitted into the new school, subject to approval from the next education minister.
Numbers in Downshire have fallen in recent years - from 782 in 2011 to 542 last year. Enrolments at Carrickfergus college have remained steady. There were 684 pupils last year.
The Carrickfergus proposals, published in late February, come ahead of a final `area plan' expected to be presented soon by the EA.
It will include details of a network of educationally and financially viable schools across the north. For some, this will mean closure or amalgamation.
The EA said the core purpose of area planning was "to ensure a network of sustainable schools that are the right type, the right size and are located in the right place".
