Gormanstown College in Co. Meath has announced that from September 2014 it is going into the free education scheme.

Gormanstown is a co-educational school with day and boarding students. Days fees are currently €6000 per year with boarders paying between €8000 and €10,000 depending on whether they are resident for five or seven days. However enrolments in the school have fallen over the last five years from 477 pupils to 205 this year and the school has been in discussions with the Department of Education for some time about it’s future.

In a statement on it’s website announcing it move to the free education scheme, the College says “this fundamental change in status will involve significant developments to the way that the College is managed and controlled into the future to provide an inclusive, relevant and excellent education experience to our current and future student cohort” It completes the statement by saying it’s “educational strategic plan will have, as its vision, Gormanston College as a beacon of educational provision in Ireland – drawing on a rich Franciscan tradition and responding to current and future needs”

Gormanston is the second fee-paying school to take a decision to enter the free education scheme in the past year. Kilkenny College stopped charging tuition fees last September.

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