Education along border regions in Ireland: challenges and opportunities

A one-year research project with communities along the border in Ireland, the only land border between the UK and the European Union, examined primary schooling. Created just over a century ago, the border's permeability has varied over time. Some children cross the border to attend primary school, in both directions, but no formal research appears to have been conducted in relation to this movement, its scale or its impact. The 229 primary schools within 3 miles of the border serve diverse communities, some of which appear to straddle the border. Some schools attract some of their intake from across the border, and they may rely on that movement of learners to keep them sustainable, but there has been no published research into how schools in these communities operate, the challenges they face and the opportunities that they can exploit due to their location. In this study, the degree to which the opportunities to use schools across the border is examined and the impact that this has on parents and children and on the schools themselves is explored. Visits to a range of schools on each side of the border and events open to the communities along the border provided considerable information, and a Geographical Information System was used to analyse potential movements of children across the border. The research is original and, while sample sizes are relatively small, this is an important first step to better understand the education provision in these communities. While particularly significant for the people who live in these complex communities, it also contributes to a greater understanding of border education provision which will be important as consideration about the future of the border in Ireland intensifies. Border communities elsewhere may also find consideration of educational provision for liminal communities of interest.