Education apartheid - Pupils don’t deserve ugly lesson in bias

Education Minister Noel Dempsey cannot for one moment entertain the possibility of any school, operating a policy of ‘education apartheid’, a charge which has been levelled at some schools in Limerick.

The accusation came from Labour Party spokeswoman Jan O’Sullivan as it emerged that 50 boys attending disadvantaged primary schools received letters of rejection from a small number of secondary schools, although there was no shortage of school places.

It is ironic that this controversy should erupt when a school opened 10 years ago to cater for a similar problem will no longer accept any more students from next September.