O’Keeffe denies floodgates open for single-sex schools

THE decision to enrol a girl in an all-boys’ second-level school in September will not open the floodgates for single-sex schools, but is likely to spark a significant debate on the gender mix in Irish education.

The mother of Megan Kavanagh who, last March, was refused a place at Nagle Community College in the Cork suburb of Mahon successfully appealed the decision. The school has agreed to let Megan begin first year at the school next month.

However, Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe said schools are entitled to single-sex enrolment under equal status legislation and the Department of Education does not expect floodgates to open as a result of the decision, based on the case heard by an appeals committee appointed by the department.

The ruling was made on the basis that Nagle Community College’s enrolment policy did not explicitly state that it only takes male students, even though City of Cork VEC, which manages the school, had argued it has been designated an all-boys school since opening in 1981.

Mr O’Keeffe said his officials will be writing to all single-sex schools to advise them how to ensure they make very clear in their enrolment policies or prospectus that they accept only boys or girls.

More than a third of the country’s 730 second level schools are single sex, — 112 all-boys and 147 all-girls — mostly in the voluntary sector founded by religious orders. However, this proportion has fallen slightly over the last decade with the closure of numerous religious-run schools, or amalgamations of existing schools into new mixed gender or co-educational schools.

Megan’s mother Gillian Lynch said they are thrilled with the decision.

“I would hope that it will be open to other girls as well, there are plenty of parents who have said they want to send their daughters to the school in their own community,” she said.

City of Cork VEC said the school might open its doors to other female students in September 2009.