Schools: cherry picking
Following concerns raised with Education Minister Mary Hanafin last year, officials have been examining enrolment numbers and policies of half the country’s 4,000 schools.
“The purpose of the audit is to ensure that schools are representative of the community they serve,” a department spokesperson said.
The exercise is concentrating on 1,572 primary and 426 second level schools in 11 areas of the country, each linked to individual regional offices of the Department of Education.
Each school was asked to provide information on the numbers of pupils enrolled, numbers whose first language is neither English nor Irish, and the numbers of other international students.
Schools are also being asked about the numbers of pupils from the Traveller community and those with special needs on their roll books.
Ms Hanafin has been placed under pressure to invoke a section of the 1998 Education Act empowering her to make regulations relating to admission of students to schools. However, that is a road unlikely to be followed.
“The minister prefers the carrot, rather than the stick, approach. Schools have an obligation to be fair in their enrolment and that’s what we want to see them doing,” a department of Education spokesperson said.
In seeking to have the audit carried out last year, however, the minister has acknowledged that there are situations where some schools do not specifically refuse enrolment to children in these categories. Instead, they make a “positive recommendation” about a neighbouring school which they tell parents can cater for their needs.
It is this so-called cherry-picking which it is hoped can be eliminated. The outcome of the process will be overseen by Minister of State Conor Lenihan, who has responsibility for integration issues across all departments.
