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Submission to the Oireachtas All Party Committee on Education and Science

Re: Redrawing of Catchment Boundaries for School Transport

We the National Parents Association for Vocational Schools and Community Colleges representing parents of children in second level education wish to make the following submission on the redrawing of school bus catchment areas.

The present boundaries have been in existence since 1967 and are now in need of a major redrawing for the following reasons.

• Centres of population have changed dramatically since 1967 and the one size fits all policy in relation to bus routes has failed.

• They need for a high quality safe and free school transport system has never been greater.

• The present system where Bus Eireann has a monopoly on providing school transport needs to be replaced with greater flexibility.

• A policy that clearly sets out the needs of the various stakeholders especially the students should be set down.

• Redrawing of the boundaries will not be successful unless a redrawing of the bus routes within the catchment is also undertaken with regular periodic review and parents input to this review process been proposed as a number of new schools have been provided and others have expanded greatly in this time.

• A parent’s wish for a greater choice in the type of School that they send their children to have increased.

• There is a need to protect existing rural schools as well as the smaller urban based school communities and the new boundaries should reflect this social need.

• A system of common catchments for schools should be introduced where this is seen as the best option. Trial projects are recommended before a final decision is made.

• The nearest school should be the major deciding factor in a free transport issue with the removal of the three mile limit for free transport, so as to reduce the volume of traffic and a reduction in car usage in school transport.

• The fact that some primary schools are traditional feeder schools to a second level school should be taken into account in redrawing boundaries.

• Drop off/pick up times and length of time spent on a bus are areas of concern for parents and students with the shortest time been proposed where possible.

• Also natural boundaries such as roads or major junctions to be used as divisions within the boundary for routes and not town lands or district electoral divisions as was used in the past.

• We also recommend that a timeframe for the introduction of your findings is included in your final report.

We submit this submission for your consideration and hope that an equitable catchment system is proposed that has a regular review process built in so that the student’s welfare is the guiding principle in your recommendations.

Signed
__________________________
John Gibbons
Vice President.