State to regulate school enrolment

THE question of how schools should decide which children to enrol is to be set down by state regulations.

They are likely to include stipulations that the attendance of a parent or sibling should not be used to determine a child’s eligibility for a place in a school.

The Department of Education said it noted yesterday’s ruling at Clonmel Circuit Court, in which a secondary school’s decision not to enrol a Traveller boy was upheld after its appeal against an earlier Equality Tribunal decision.

He was one of a number of pupils whose application was unsuccessful because he did not meet one of the criteria that gave preference to boys whose father or older brother had already attended the school.

A discussion document on school enrolments was published by Education Minister Ruairi Quinn last month, when he said it is unfair for families who move to an area to compete for places with children living there or whose parents attended local schools.

The department will accepting submissions on its document up to late October.

A spokesperson said it is expected that a new regulatory framework will then be drawn up to address how best to allocate school places to prospective students.

The minister has also intimated there should be an end to the practice of some schools allocating places based on waiting lists, with many children being registered for second-level schools soon after birth.

Meanwhile, research among teenage and adult Travellers in Sligo has found that many parents are reluctant to engage with schools because they lack confidence following negative experiences themselves in the education system.

For most of the 30 Travellers who took part in the study, their first awareness of discrimination was when they started school.

Tamsin Cavaliero, a lecturer in early childhood care and education at Institute of Technology Sligo, said that while many participants had enjoyable experiences at primary school, older Travellers recalled having to endure unfair treatment.

These included being called names such as “knacker”, being accused of stealing or of being dirty and smelly, or being forced to play in a different playground from settled children.

Half of those interviewed were aged 15 to 22 and the others between 25 and 46.

They spoke about having to clean up classrooms, being put at the back of class to do colouring while other children did “proper work” and being kept with other Travellers in one class, regardless of age and ability.

Ms Cavaliero said a small number of participants in the research said they felt isolated and humiliated when teachers tried to highlight their culture in class in a manner they considered insensitive.

Many parents also said the costs of uniforms and books for large families were prohibitive, with some families having up to 11 children at school.

The coming school year will see the withdrawal of a range of additional staffing and other supports for schools to help them meet the educational needs of Traveller pupils, including additional resource teachers and other posts for primary and second-level schools.