School requires 4 more pupils or may be shut

EDUCATION Six of the seven pupils currently attending Furglan National School - Eoghan Cagney, Adam Wall, Lee Blackwell, Felix Wall, Ronan Blackwell and Melody McGlynn - with teacher Monica Dilleen, Principal Patricia Vaughan and SNA Karen Irwin

- BY SEAN MURPHY

TODAY is the deadline for a rural school which urgently needs to register at least four new pupils or face closure.

The Department of Education gave Furglan National School near Ennistymon in Co Clare until September 30 to safeguard its future.

Campaigners say its closure could spell teachers' job losses and a scramble for the seven attending pupils to find new schools.

Worried principal Patricia Vaughan claimed those children are "just as important as the children in classrooms bursting at the seams in Dublin".