EDUCATION

£700,000 plan for Essex
THE ,Brentwood diocese has launched a £700,000 programme to build new Catholic schools in Essex during the next three years.
Canon Vincent Hurley, secretary of the Brentwood schools commission. told the CATHOLIC HI RAM this week that the diocese hoped to provide 5,050 new primary and secondary school places in the county.
During the ten years between 1952 and 1962, he said, the proportion of Catholic children born in the diocese rose from 8.5 per cent to 11.9 per cent. Of the 23,535 children born in 1952, 2,013 were baptised Catholics. Of 33,561 born in 1962, 3,992 were baptised Catholics.
Only a little more than half the estimated number of Catholic children in Essex could find places in Catholic schools.
There were 16,299 places for an estimated 28,500 Catholic children. The additional 5,050 places planned for the next three years would just manage to keep the present ratio, for by that time there would be an estimated 36,700 Catholic children in Essex. Canon Hurley added that the plans would no doubt be changed after the new ,Government had made its proposals for coping with the population increases in SouthEast England.