CLOSE to 30 schools flagged as having sustainability issues a year or more ago remain open.
The latest `action plan' which identified even more, has also exposed the slow pace of area planning.
The Education Authority (EA) has detailed areas where there should be closures, mergers or expansions.
Its aim is to create a network of schools "of the right type, of the right size, in the right place".
The new plan named 22 schools where "sustainability is an issue" but any decision to close them would have to be subject to consultation.
It also listed further `work streams' where the EA or the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools (CCMS) will "ensure school places are located as required".
This is the third time these bodies have carried out such an exercise, although schools that were flagged in previous years have remained untouched.
The new plan, which covers 2019-21, includes details of several work schemes from previous years that have not progressed.
Almost 30 schools were identified in last year's report as having issues, and almost all of them are still operating.
The EA was due to consult on options for future provision for Drumsallen PS in rural Co Armagh by December 2018. It has just 23 pupils. Instead, the target date for review has been changed to January next year.
Similarly, Blackwater Integrated College in Downpatrick and The High School Ballynahinch, where pupil numbers are low, were due to be looked at together by October 2018. The new plan indicates they will now be reviewed separately, Blackwater by February 2020 and the High School by next April.
The target date for reviewing Brownlow Controlled Integrated College in Craigavon has also been pushed back by two years to early 2021.
Just one school out of 27 named in last year's plan - St Macnissius' PS in Tannaghmore - has had a development proposal for closure published.
A small number of others are at the pre-consultation stage and it is expected they will shut.
Every annual action plan document states an intention to promote "shared education solutions which provide sustainable schools".
There was widespread support for new models of education, including joint-faith schools, in some areas.
The delay in taking these forward has led to the decline of one or all of the schools in those areas, however.
The Church of Ireland managed Desertmartin PS is facing closure, spelling doom for plans to create a joint-faith primary. It had been hoped it and the Catholic Knocknagin PS would merge to become the north's first jointly-managed Church school.
Elsewhere, the Catholic Ballyhacket PS in Castlerock had considered integrated status but was told it was "too late".
All schools in the Carnlough/Glenarm area were due to discuss options for sharing/integration by March 2018. This was then bumped back a year, and now another two years to 2021.
They were to "promote shared education solutions which provide sustainable schools".
Two of the three schools involved are being considered for closure after "a single solution could not be agreed".
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COMMENT
It has become obvious since area planning began that there has been little cross-sectoral collaboration.
And when there is willingness to devise novel models of education, time runs out.
Action plans talk every year about "shared education solutions", but we are yet to see any emerge.
There was hope Desertmartin and Knocknagin PS, who enjoy an extensive shared education programme, would make history.
They both supported an amalgamation and plan to be jointly managed by the Catholic Church and Church of Ireland.
But now a proposal to close Desertmartin is to be put out to consultation.
There remains hope among parents that this will be rejected. They say closing the school would be a disaster for children, families and staff and have far reaching consequences in terms of community relations.
There have been other missed opportunities.
Bellarena PS in Co Derry closed this month, four years after a nearby Catholic primary also shut. A shared option was not progressed as neither of the two schools were considered sustainable.
The same is happening in the Carnlough and Glenarm area. School managing authorities were to "promote shared education solutions" by 2018. Since then, the state controlled Caranalbanagh PS has been earmarked for closure and the Catholic Seaview PS is also being reviewed.
It appears while schools and communities are fully supportive of shared education, such models will only be considered if proposed by larger schools.
