EA 'short-sighted' about OECs

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Wednesday, 16 November 2016 08:33

The Education Authority is being 'short-sighted' by planning to close four outdoor education centres.

That's from Lurgan teacher Jimmy Smith, who's brought pupils to Killowen OEC for the past thirty years.
A public consultation on the centre's future began on Monday.
Mr Smith says closure would be anti-education.
He spoke to Q Radio's Iveren McCallion, "It will be very, very detrimental and I think on the part of the Education Board it's actually very short-sighted because outdoor education is a huge aspect of the PE program.

He added, "It covers so many areas within what teachers want to see pupils achieving. They want to see them raising their self esteem, building their confidence, interacting with other pupils, meeting pupils from other schools, and all of those things are to be found in Killowen and I think it will be a very retrograde step to close the doors on Killowen."