Toal attacks ‘discriminatory’ mergers

THE NEWLY appointed Bishop of Motherwell claims that a local authority plan to reduce the number of Catholic schools in North Lanarkshire amounts to “indirect discrimination”, writes Brian Morton.

Bishop Joseph Toal, the Bishop of Argyll and the Isles who was named as the Bishop of Motherwell last week, has made a strong submission to North Lanarkshire Council’s consultation on school provision.

The council is proposing to merge some Catholic schools and move others on to shared campuses. North Lanarkshire is the fourth-largest local authority in Scotland and is situated to the east of Glasgow, encompassing a number of the city’s suburbs along with rural areas.

Bishop Toal promised to “stand together with the Catholic community” in resisting proposals by the council that would significantly reduce the number of denominational schools in the area.

In the submission, the bishop said that the diocese had listened to representatives of schools, parishes and local communities, and that he had “significant concerns” about North Lanarkshire’s commitment to providing Catholic education “on an equitable basis”.

These concerns are based on an apparent inconsistency between the council’s stated need to amalgamate smaller schools into larger and more manageable institutions, while apparently sustaining non-denominational schools with small rolls.

Catholic secondaries in the area would, on average, be one-third larger than their counterparts.