Speaking at the school's annual prize-giving ceremony, the Principal of St Eugene's College, Roslea, Dr Martin Knox said there was a 'hurricane' of change sweeping through Fermanagh.
"The winds of change are blowing. They're sweeping across our Fermanagh schools as never before. A hurricane, in fact might best describe our situation."
He proceeded to outline the challenges ahead: "Changes to selection procedures: will there be selection? Will we have grammar schools? Will we have grammar schools with their enrolment capped? Will our schools be Bain-proof? Will we be able to offer the entitlement framework and applied subjects? Can we collaborate with our neighbouring schools, or will we shunt pupils from pillar to post to force collaboration between schools whether or not it is the right way forward for the pupils?
"Many questions," he mused, "but few answers. The one consistent in education is change. With change comes threat. With changes comes uncertainty. So, why don't we commence our prize-giving with the certainties.
"For certain", he stated, " St Eugene's College has been a flagship school in this area for Fermanagh for 40 years. For certain, St Eugene's College has played a pivotal role in forming our young people - in giving them values, in turning them into successful citizens working in every aspect of commerce, industry, the trades and professions throughout home and abroad.
"For certain, St Eugene's is more than just a school', Dr Knox went on. " We are part of the fabric of this county, of the Clogher Diocese and of Catholic education. We have nurtured, informed and moulded. We have produced the workers and leaders to perpetuate our success story, our ethos, our values, our character.
"And for certain, I say this: the future of St Eugene's College is more than just about a building where pupils are taught. It is about preserving a culture, an eminent institution, a centre of learning, a shrine to the hallowed values we hold dear".
As to the future, he suggested that any educational initiative, option, alternative provision, or strategy must recognise the role St Eugene's had played over the last 40 years and, so, it must seek to ensure the pupils of this area and the parents who send their children to it were provided with the same quality of provision that they have grown to expect.
"Anything less', Dr Knox suggested, " is short-changing the Catholic community that has long sustained the survival of St Eugene's College. With this in mind, we have extended invitation to our sister secondary schools in the area to meet with us. The Post Primary Review Team is willing to facilitate a meeting to help us submit joint options as part of the consultation process for the future of our schools. If Catholic education is to survive in this area, we will need to work together to sustain it".
So, everyone must look to a shared future that will enable the strong tradition of St Eugene's to continue, a tradition of a successful school community with Christ at its centre, a synthesis of faith and culture and a fine tradition which every year manifested itself in an annual ceremony of recognition and reward.
Concluding, Dr Know said: "We want to see many more ceremonies. So we must look to changing times as we welcome a gentle breeze on a hot summer day, because an educational hurricane is not the solution. Hurricanes bring carnage and destruction and we at St Eugene's College deserve better.
"So let us move forward at a positive, measured and productive pace to embrace change that acknowledges our past and prepares us for the future. For only then can we truly recognise that which has sustained us for 40 years."
