Petition for co-ed post-primary provision in Westport

A PETITION has been launched calling for co-education at second-level to be made available in Westport.

The online petition sets out: 'We call on school authorities in Westport to take the necessary steps to provide co-educational post-primary education in Westport, starting next September.

'We want our sons and daughters, nephews and nieces, grandchildren, and boys and girls of our families and communities to be able to go to post-primary school together. We believe it is in their educational, social and community interest.'

It continued: 'The Department of Education are right not to have sanctioned any new single-sex schools in recent years. Single sex primary schools in Westport have been phased out. It’s time to make the same thing true at post-primary level.

'We believe co-educational schools are: family friendly, socially more cohesive, offer a broader curriculum with greater subject choices, offer a more balanced, holistic education and save money and CO2 emissions on transport to other towns.'

The data provided through the petition will be submitted to the relevant authorities as part of the campaign,the petition states.

For more information about the campaign and petition, email coed4westport@gmail.com.

The petition link, which has been shared on social media, including the Westport Family and Community Resource Centre, is https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=DQSIkWdsW0yxEjajBLZtrQAAAAAAAAAAAAN__thrpNxUQkJES1MxWlc1MTdWTlJDWERITlk2VEc4Ri4u&fbclid=IwAR260ayXGOI2HPf0r195xtuiEN0T0Ug3REYYeP6h9iULM-gbMxb_7NSWKrQ.