Page 16 - The Gonzaga Record 1986
P. 16
two ways in particular. First, most secondary schools have become free,
and the 5 per cent which still charge fees are selective in a way that they
had not planned or intended. We find that the necessary level of fees
limits access to Gonzaga in a way that works against the Christian
character of the school. Secondly, education has become universal up
to the age of fifteen. Secondary education in the city is no longer
merely the task of bringing the above-average children up to a good
academic level; it includes the task of meeting the educational needs
of all pupils, of all abilities, and this cannot be done in a school of
Gonzaga's size and character. Selection of twelve year-olds into differ-
ent sorts of schools, for the more and less academic, seems to be pre-
mature, and we believe that Gonzaga could better serve educational
needs now if it was able to postpone that selection and become com-
prehensive in intake.
Concurrently with these changes we have felt the need to change our
intake policy in accordance with the directives of Fr General and the
express policy of the Province since 1972, of running our schools in as
open a way as possible, and of each school contributing in its own way
to the development of local community, both of young people and of
adults. Gonzaga, in a residential area of Dublin, is strongly placed to
contribute in this way, and this too is in view in the proposal which
follows.
Proposal
Gonzaga stands on seventeen arces. It could be valued conservatively
at £1,500,000. We propose to lease this land for a nominal sum to the
Department of Education by a deed of trust: in return the Department
would build a comprehensive school to be managed by a board of
management, to be detailed below. The arrangement would envisage
procedures to be followed should the Society wish to withdraw from
ownership or management of the school. The school would be
financed in the same way as the Jesuit Crescent Comprehensive school
at Limerick.
Management
Management would be by a Board of five, three of them appointed by
the Jesuit Provincial; the other two by the Minister of Education. It
would have the same functions and mode of operation as in the Cres-
cent Comprehensive.
Catchment
The school would be designed to serve both boys and girls, of a com-
prehensive range of ability. It would be co-educational and academically
14
and the 5 per cent which still charge fees are selective in a way that they
had not planned or intended. We find that the necessary level of fees
limits access to Gonzaga in a way that works against the Christian
character of the school. Secondly, education has become universal up
to the age of fifteen. Secondary education in the city is no longer
merely the task of bringing the above-average children up to a good
academic level; it includes the task of meeting the educational needs
of all pupils, of all abilities, and this cannot be done in a school of
Gonzaga's size and character. Selection of twelve year-olds into differ-
ent sorts of schools, for the more and less academic, seems to be pre-
mature, and we believe that Gonzaga could better serve educational
needs now if it was able to postpone that selection and become com-
prehensive in intake.
Concurrently with these changes we have felt the need to change our
intake policy in accordance with the directives of Fr General and the
express policy of the Province since 1972, of running our schools in as
open a way as possible, and of each school contributing in its own way
to the development of local community, both of young people and of
adults. Gonzaga, in a residential area of Dublin, is strongly placed to
contribute in this way, and this too is in view in the proposal which
follows.
Proposal
Gonzaga stands on seventeen arces. It could be valued conservatively
at £1,500,000. We propose to lease this land for a nominal sum to the
Department of Education by a deed of trust: in return the Department
would build a comprehensive school to be managed by a board of
management, to be detailed below. The arrangement would envisage
procedures to be followed should the Society wish to withdraw from
ownership or management of the school. The school would be
financed in the same way as the Jesuit Crescent Comprehensive school
at Limerick.
Management
Management would be by a Board of five, three of them appointed by
the Jesuit Provincial; the other two by the Minister of Education. It
would have the same functions and mode of operation as in the Cres-
cent Comprehensive.
Catchment
The school would be designed to serve both boys and girls, of a com-
prehensive range of ability. It would be co-educational and academically
14
