Only one Leitrim school receives STEM funding out of 531

Martin Kenny, Sinn Fein TD for Sligo Leitrim North Roscommon and South Donegal, has expressed disappointment that only one school in Co Leitrim will receive STEM funding from the Department of Education that was announced yesterday.

Deputy Kenny said; “Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Art (STEM) play a pivotal role in our education system to help develop the skills that students need in all aspects of life. I understand that there was very large number of applications over 2,700 and a limited amount of funding with only 531 schools receiving a grant.

“I was very disappointed to see that only 1 School in Co Leitrim received funding St Aidan’s NS in Ballaghmeehan in North Leitrim. Congratulations to them it is well deserved of course.  I believe many schools in the county applied for this grant and put in considerable amount of time filling out application forms and getting costings for their applications.

“I am led to believe that the process of deciding what schools were to receive funding was done by way of a lottery. This has left many of those schools who were unsuccessful annoyed that their application were not even looked at.

“Leitrim is the only County in the state that had just one school with a successful application. All other counties had multiple successful schools with many in the high teens and some with over twenty successful schools.

“While I’m sure all successful schools are deserving of this funding it seems like a very unfair way of deciding what schools get funding and I will be writing to the minister in relation to this matter.”

Meanwhile, Brendan Smith TD, Cavan-Monaghan, welcomed €138,479 for 9 Cavan and 7 Monaghan schools in STEM grants.