Orange Order backs education lobby group

The Orange Order has weighed into the Craigavon Senior High School debate - backing calls for a '˜Lurgan solution' to the issue.
Pictured left to right: Gary Stewart, Norman Wilkinson, David Martin District Master, Colin McCusker Deputy District Master and Leighanne Patterson.Pictured left to right: Gary Stewart, Norman Wilkinson, David Martin District Master, Colin McCusker Deputy District Master and Leighanne Patterson.
Pictured left to right: Gary Stewart, Norman Wilkinson, David Martin District Master, Colin McCusker Deputy District Master and Leighanne Patterson.

Lurgan District LoL No 6 is made up of over Twenty Individual Lodges and almost the entirety of its sizeable membership is based in the Lurgan catchment area.

In a letter they stated: “The issue of Craigavon Senior High School and the single proposal from the governing body of Craigavon Senior High to the Education Authority, to close the Lurgan Campus and to relocate to Portadown is of the deepest concern to all our members and will affect our membership considerably.

We therefore wish to go on record our firm opposition to this proposal and our commitment to strenuously lobby against what we deem is an attack on the educational equality of our children in Lurgan.

“In our opinion the Governing body and the EA have failed our young people in what we feel is a foolhardy decision, taken without the consent or opinion of the main stakeholders.

“There needs to be an open and honest debate relating to the future of the 1,400 plus young people and their families and the community at large on how we can move forward, with the starting point being firmly that all our children will and must be educated in Lurgan.

“We believe the proposal to the EA by the Education Equality for Lurgan group, holds great merit and gives solid ground for discussion moving forward, and we wish to see these proposals taken seriously and for widespread consultations to take place before any attempted plan to carry out the disastrous single proposal put before the E.A by the Governing body of CSH school.