Posted on 07/25/2005 5:16:51 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
Two secondary schools in the south Wales valleys will close next week because of falling numbers of children.
Bedwellty Comprehensive in Aberbargoed, with 400 pupils, and 277-pupil Vaynor and Penderyn High in Merthyr are the latest casualties of Wales' falling birth rates.
Pupils will be moved to nearby schools.
The Vaynor closure was confirmed last year when a Welsh Assembly Government letter said it was "educationally and financially unviable".
According to official figures, the number of children in Wales is set to fall by over 11% in the next 20 years.
We have not got the young people starting families in the area, so we have fewer children Acting head Sally Hyman About 70% of school funding is determined by the number of pupils on the roll. Once the numbers start to fall, schools are in danger, and there are concerns that the closures could be the first of many.
Children at Bedwellty Comprehensive Bedwellty pupils have been packing items to send to Uganda
Sally Hyman, acting head of Bedwellty Comprehensive, said part of the problem there were a lack of prospects for the younger generation.
"Many of them have been moving away for a number of years, therefore we have not got the young people starting families in the area, so we have fewer children in the area," she said.
"Hence the surplus places in the area and unfortunately the closure of our comprehensive school."
Deputy head Clive Hughes said times had changed since the area was booming when he was a pupil in the 1960s.
"The high streets were full - unemployment was virtually unheard of. It is a bit different now," he said.
As the school closes, some of its equipment will go to Uganda.
"It is called the King's primary school - we have already sent one container load of goods out there," said Ms Hyman.
"We shall be loading a second container with the surplus tables and chairs, the exercise books, the pencils the pens, the blackboards, the chalk - everything that is useful for them will be sent over there."
The Vaynor and Penderyn schools will be transferred to other schools, including Pen-y-Dre High in Merthyr.
Increasingly as the native British women became barren, the children of fertile Muslim women will replace them.
Bedwellty pupils have been packing items to send to Uganda
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