Strule: Department committed to Shared Education Campus

The site in Omagh will eventually accommodate six schools but the construction costs have soared

Stormont's Department of Education has said it remains committed to a shared education campus in Omagh, County Tyrone, after an independent review said it was "unaffordable".

Strule is the biggest school building project to be planned in Northern Ireland.

It will involve more than 4,000 pupils being taught in six schools with some shared facilities.

Beset by delays, the project's cost has soared to an anticipated £341m.

Earlier this week, the authors of the Independent Review of Education said it was an "example of a project where the benefits do not come close to justifying the cost".

A spokesperson for the Department of Education said: "The need for significant capital investment in post-primary education in Omagh has been recognised by successive executives.

"The benefits of the Strule Shared Education Campus for young people and the wider community are extensive, providing new and unique opportunities for pupils to be educated together in high-quality facilities.

"Whilst there are currently significant funding challenges across the education capital budget, the Department of Education is fully committed to continuing work to take forward the planning and design of the Strule Campus."

They added that the department is considering a range of potential funding options to support the programme.

The campus is being built on the site of the former Lisanelly Army base in Omagh

What's the timeline?

The current timeline is for a construction contract to be awarded in May 2024, with five post-primary schools moving to the campus in September 2027.

But there is a caveat that, as with all construction projects, "this may be subject to change as the project progresses".

When plans were originally submitted in 2010 the scheme was expected to be completed by 2020 at a cost in excess of £120m.

Speaking in 2013 as work began to clear the 126-acre site, the then education minister John O'Dowd described the project as "visionary" and symbolic of the progress made through working together.

The decade of delays since then has been symbolic of political dysfunction and inertia.

Earlier this year, the governors of Loreto Grammar School said the repeated delays have created "uncertainty and instability" for schools in Omagh.

The absence of a Stormont executive has also "negatively impacted" confidence that the campus will be built by 2027.

To date £44.4m has been spent on the construction of Arvalee Special School, a new road scheme and site preparation work.

Arvalee, which opened in 2016, is one of of six schools proposed for the site.

Only show in town

Loreto Grammar and Christian Brothers Grammar as well as Omagh High School, Sacred Heart College and Omagh Academy are due to relocate to the campus when it is finished.

Some of those schools are in urgent need of modern facilities, and they have been told the Strule project is the only show in town.

The planned campus includes some shared areas, such as a hub containing classrooms for shared lessons, a school of performance and shared sports facilities.

The panel who carried out the education review said the resources for Strule should be transferred to other projects

The Independent Review of Education report has now cast doubt on this vision of the future of education.

The panel said it did not provide any educational advantage and should cease immediately, with resources transferred to other educational projects.

The report stated "it is unlikely that Strule will prove to be pioneering" and "the element of educational innovation is minimal".

"Each of the five transferring schools will remain largely as at present, offering the same curriculum in five separate new schools," it said.

"Planning for the project expresses sharing aspirations but there is no obligation on campus schools to participate in shared learning."

While most of the funding will come from the government's Fresh Start Agreement, £170m will be required from the Department of Education.

The report said that without additional funding, the vast majority of the capital budget would be spent on Strule, which would mean drastic reductions in other capital spend on education.

The Sinn Féin MP for West Tyrone Órfhlaith Begley rejected the review's recommendation in relation to Strule.

"This is a ground-breaking project with regional significance that will allow for state-of-the-art facilities," she said.

SDLP West Tyrone MLA Daniel McCrossan said: "Strule is key to the future of education in Omagh and the surrounding areas and I'll be doing everything I can to ensure it goes ahead."