Lucy O’Sullivan had always anticipated that her son Mark, aged 12, would join the community high school. Their residence is just 300m away from St Benildus College in Stillorgan, County Dublin, where Mark’s local primary school is one of the closest.
“His name was enrolled at St. Benildus when he was only a year old. He has grown up believing that was his school. My brother was a student there as well. We see it every day since it’s the school right at the end of our road,” O’Sullivan explains.
And yet, when the high school distributed placements for the upcoming school year, Mark was overlooked and instead had his name entered into a draw. Additionally, at the closest post-primary school—Oatlands College—he ended up being 62nd on the waiting list.
In a state of panic, O’Sullivan hastily applied to other various schools, and finally managed to secure a spot at a private fee-charging institution–Rockbrook Park School, located in Rathfarnham, a full hour commute during peak traffic hours.
For O’Sullivan, a single mother of four who also works part-time, the monetary strain is immense. The annual fee for the school will be approximately €6,000, plus an extra €1,000 for school transportation and several hundred euros for textbooks, which are not offered under the government’s free books scheme as it is a private school.
O’Sullivan recalls the anxiety and desperation caused by school places. “I was filled with anger, fear and frustration and couldn’t sleep for a fortnight when he was denied a place,” O’Sullivan admits. “Coping with a child who was petrified was even harder. Plus, having Asperger’s syndrome only worsened the situation, since he didn’t know what to expect next.”
“Though we’ve secured a place now, I’m left with no choice but to ask my parents for financial assistance. The only reason I can manage it is because of the monthly payment plan that’s available. It’s incredibly disappointing–I can’t fathom why he can’t attend his community school.”
This predicament is unfortunately commonplace, as parents from various regions across the country are wrestling to secure secondary school places for their kids this year.
The Education Department recognises that there are issues in securing enrolment for their offspring for the upcoming academic year in September, particularly amongst five counties. These encompass areas within Kildare (Prosperous/Clane, Celbridge, Naas, Kilcock, Kildare town/Curragh, Maynooth, Newbridge), Dublin (Newcastle/Rathcoole, Lucan, Malahide/Nevinstown, Carpenterstown, Castleknock, Portmarnock), Cork (Clonakilty, Fermoy, Midleton), Wicklow (Greystones, Kilcoole), and Galway (Athenry, Galway city, Oranmore).
Most of these locales have seen a speedy increase in populations, however, the development of new educational establishments or proposed expansion projects have been sluggish in keeping up. To address this, the department states that it is collaborating with schools in these regions to share enrolment figures and examine any duplication of places offered. Where necessary, the department will allocate funds for additional places.
The department categorises the country into 314 planning areas for schools, utilising an amalgamation of data sources – like child benefit records, enrolment statistics, and information on residential developments – to anticipate the requirement for school places. For instance, solely within Dublin, there are around 40 such planning areas, with all schools reported as oversubscribed in nearly half of them, including Dún Laoghaire, Dublin 6W, Castleknock, Booterstown/Blackrock, Blanchardstown West, Blanchardstown Village, Rathfarham, Rush/Lusk, Skerries, Swords, Whitehall-Santry, Malahide-Nevinstown, Palmerstown/Ronanstown and more.
Moreover, there are numerous other school planning regions, predominantly in cities, large towns, and commuter belt areas, where all secondary schools are fully subscribed. Parent groups frequently contend that the insufficiency of school places results from an inadequacy in delivering school placements in line with residential growth or a demographic surge of students at secondary school age which is now reaching its peak.
The department asserts that reasons such as application duplication (students applying to multiple schools), school reputation (more applicants are drawn to prestigious schools even though there are vacancies in others), and external appeal (students from outside a local area applying) can attribute to the increasing amount of oversubscribed schools. It affirms an ongoing review of school place needs to ensure that collectively, all schools can accommodate students seeking a spot within the area.
Goatstown-Stillorgan features amongst the 314 school planning areas but does not officially register as an area facing enrolment pressure. With all five schools in the area – including St Benildus College (boys), Our Lady’s Grove Secondary School (girls), St Raphaela’s Secondary School (girls), Goatstown Educate Together (co-ed), and Mount Anville Secondary School (girls) – being oversubscribed. For instance, St Benildus College had a waiting list of 198 students, Mount Anville Secondary School had 155, and St Raphaela’s Secondary School had 158 last year.
Eric Leonard, who has a 12-year-old son currently on the waiting list for admission at St Benildus (number 54), is among many parents who found it extremely difficult to secure a school place for their children this year. Leonard likened the experience to taking part in the ‘Hunger Games’ and shared his concerns about the impact of this situation on children, who he feels are being deprived of joining secondary school alongside their primary school friends. He continued to express his concern that the problem is perpetuated by the lengths parents will go to, such as commuting long distances or resorting to private schools, to ensure their children have a school place.
Feeling let down by the current system, he initiated a ‘secondary schools crisis action group’, which has grown to over 400 parents from the Stillorgan area since its first public meeting last month.
The subject of discussion here is the discriminatory nature of the admissions procedures implemented by schools such as St Benildus. They often give precedence to children who have links to the school through their fathers or grandfathers, up to a maximum quota of 25% of the available spots, over local primary school children.
The individual in question, Leonard’s son, for instance, is a pupil at the local St Laurence’s Boys’ National School, which falls amongst the two schools closest, within a 25-minute walking distance, to St Benildus. Despite that, he contends, these two schools are viewed on par with six other primary schools, some at a two-hour walking distance from the aforementioned secondary school. Owing to this, over 20% of boys from the aforementioned closest schools were unable to secure spots in their neighbouring secondary school.
He laments, “Children belonging to the Covid generation, along with their families, have suffered significant turbulence and disruption during their primary education stage. They are definitely not deserving of the same fate as they proceed to their secondary education stage. The educational leaders of their community, the Ministry of Education, and the minister are surely expected to deliver better.”
In response to an inquiry on the issue, St Benildus chose not to comment. Nonetheless, Paul Crone, the National Association of Principals and Deputies’ director, stated that due to high demand surpassing the available places, schools often find themselves in a difficult predicament. Most of them operate at full capacity, with no physical room to accommodate more classes. Parents, moreover, have the liberty to apply to any school, local or otherwise.
He highlights that the country is almost unique in Europe for its constitutional protection of parents’ right to choose their child’s school. He suggests that potential solutions might include enhanced cooperation among schools to ascertain the true demand level by eliminating multiple applications, as well as providing additional space in schools where necessary.
The Department allows schools’ boards of management to establish their own priorities in their admissions policies in case of oversubscription, provided they are in accordance with the Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018.
The enrolment procedure and the admissions policy it relies on must be equitable and unbiased toward all candidate students. Yet, such a system could lead to the scenario where not all children are able to secure admission to their preferred school. Leonard, however, argues that many parents perceive choice to be a scarce resource. Our group’s main objective is to campaign for schools having enough resources and space for every child to attain a secondary education placement within their local vicinity, and for school admissions policies to cater to the demands of local communities. This viewpoint correlates with climate change strategies, sustainable transportation and other practices – therefore, it should not be deemed unrealistic for a child to attend their local school.