School principal asks minister to make exception for talented asylum seeker student

She’s been living here for the past two years and this week she scored top marks in her Leaving Certificate — the highest of any pupil at her school — but annual fees of €25,000 threaten her ambition to attend college here.

Anna Kern, aged 18, is Ukrainian and lives at a direct provision centre for asylum seekers at Knockalisheen on the outskirts of Limerick City. As an asylum seeker she was barred from taking the HPAT test so she can’t study medicine. Anna now wants to study physiotherapy at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin. As a non-EU citizen, she faces annual fees of €25,000.

Anna and her principal at Limerick’s Coláiste Nano Nagle, Marion Cummins, hope to discuss her plight today with local TD and Education Minister Jan O’Sullivan.

“Exceptions should be made in cases such as Anna’s. She is an extremely motivated student, particularly bright, unassuming, and a great role model for all other students. She got the highest marks in the entire class of 58 girls,” Ms Cummins said.

“We need the Annas of this world and there should be a welcome for talent such as hers. Already we have received huge messages of support and one woman, a retired politician who I cannot name, has offered to provide Anna with accommodation in Dublin for the duration of her college studies.”

Anna moved to this country two years ago seeking asylum with her mother, Lyndmyla; sister Olga, 10; and brother Andriy, 14.

“When I came here first I had very little English and had to use a dictionary a lot in class. From the very start I got great help and support from all my teachers here in Nano Nagle school,” Anna said.

#LeavingCert: The success of your life will be measured in your own fulfilment, nothing else http://t.co/L40VMZj0KR pic.twitter.com/I82a5Wb1tl

— Irish Examiner (@irishexaminer) August 13, 2015

“My first choice was to do medicine, but the rules on non-EU citizens did not allow me to do the HPAT and physiotherapy was my next choice. I want to go into a profession where I can help people and I know I can do that if I can get to continue my studies. I would like some day in the future to go on and fulfil my ambition of being a doctor,” she said.

Anna spent Wednesday night with her family at the direct provision centre. “My mum baked a special cheesecake for us,” she said.

Ms Cummins said it is unjust that non-EU students like Anna are allowed go through second level and get to the very top, only then to be abandoned by the system.

But she was encouraged by the number of potential benefactors who have contacted the school to help Anna enter third level.

Although plans are being finalised by Ms O’Sullivan to give asylum seekers a level playing field in terms of college fees and access to grants from this autumn, any such changes would not benefit Anna.

Ms O’Sullivan’s proposal, backed by the working group that reported to the Government on improved supports for asylum seekers, would apply only to those who have been at least five years in the Irish education system.