I thoroughly agree with the comments made in your newspaper last week regarding the situation at Devenish College.

This deep frustration felt regarding the new school is a result of the way the staff, pupils and parents at Devenish College have been treated by the WELB over the past number of years.

Back in 2000 plans were presented to the school for a new Technology and Design and Information Technology block, staff were told they would be moving in a year later. This fell through. When the WELB coerced the Board of Governors of Enniskillen High and the Duke of Westminster Schools to merge in 2004 they were told that by merging it would considerably speed up the process of constructing a new school. Again more deceit.

When the two schools did merge, the staff, pupils and parents were assured that the school in Kesh would remain open until the new Devenish College was opened in 2008. Again more pretence.

Wonderful presentations were made to staff showing virtual images of the state of the art new Devenish College and then the signs went up on the Tempo Road site. Staff in the College spent many hours assisting the developers in selecting how they would like things to be in the new building, again this fell through.

In this latest fiasco, the Board withdrew planning permission for a school on the site on 1st April (quite an apt date !!) and letters were sent out to residents informing them of the withdrawal.

Interestingly enough, Mr Mulholland met with a group of NASUWT executives and three teacher representatives from the schools involved in the pre-consultation process on 11th April. This meeting was organised so that teachers representatives could gain first hand information on what stage the process was at and, more importantly, to air their concerns on the situation regarding Devenish College.

Mr Mulholland did state at the meeting that "if finances were released by the Department of Education, then the new school could start straight away, providing nothing else happened". These were Mr Mulholland's very words. It was very remiss of him not to mention that he already knew that something else had happened, the planning for the new college had been withdrawn 10 days earlier. Just the way it was remiss of him to allow the local residents in the Tempo road area to be informed of this before informing the staff, pupils and parents of those currently at Devenish College.

NASUWT Representative

Devenish College