Audit finds schools ‘cherry-picking’ students

SECONDARY schools that give first preference to family members of current or past pupils might have to change their enrolment policies because they exclude children with special needs, children of immigrants and Travellers.

Education Minister, Mary Hanafin, believes schools should no longer enrol pupils on a first-come, first-served basis, such as where children are on a waiting list to get into a school soon after they are born.

An audit of enrolment policies, published by the Department of Education yesterday, found many schools use restrictive enrolment policies to discriminate against students recently arrived in the country.