Pupils lose out in CAO-type school placement

UP to 80 sixth-class Limerick primary school pupils have been left without first round offers under a new method of allocating places in the city’s 15 secondary schools.

A CAO-type system of school placement is now being operated by the city’s secondary schools to ensure that every student will have an offer of a place at the completion of the process.

One parent, who asked not to be named, said his 11-year-old daughter had filled in her first five choices as the new system requires.

“She got none. I have to tell her when she comes home from school today. The letter came after she left this morning,” he said.

She now has to enter the second round.

Last September, the then Education Minister Noel Dempsey held an emergency one-day meeting with second-level principals to secure places for 11 students, mostly from disadvantaged areas, who did not get any place.

Indications are that the problem areas this year will be in the middle-class Dooradoyle and Raheen suburbs, where mosts parents have listed Crescent Comprehensive College as their first choice.

Former Fine Gael leader Michael Noonan, a former teacher at Crescent College, said he had received many calls from anxious parents over the past four weeks.

“This year there is a more orderly process and today’s offers are only the first round offers. I wouldn’t think there is a crisis, yet,” Mr Noonan said.

The National Educational Welfare Board (NEWB) said it is available to help families having enrolment difficulties.

However, a spokesperson said there is no concern at this stage about a repeat of last year’s admissions crisis.

It is understood that many of those pupils whose parents sought places could be from outlying areas of the city, where they may also be eligible for enrolment in Co Limerick second-level schools not involved in the allocation system.

NEWB staff in Limerick are available to handle queries from concerned families at [phone].