the town has two primary schools: bunclody national school and carrigduff national school. there are two secondary schools. the fcj secondary school, and bunclody vocational college. the fcj was founded by a french order of nuns in 1861. the school was a boarding school for girls throughout the 20th century. the all girls school provided education for day pupils and accepted male day pupils from the late 1960's when the school became co-ed. the old boarding school was demolished in 2002. the school has several football, hurling and basketball teams, which compete at a national level.