Asylum seeker who got 575 points in Leaving Cert to be helped, says Minister

Minister for Education and Skills Jan O’Sullivan says she will give “every assistance” to an asylum seeker who is trying to secure a place in college in Ireland after gaining 575 points in the Leaving Cert.

The Minister said she was also seeking to introduce a scheme as soon as possible to ensure any asylum seeker who had spent five years in secondary education here would be entitled to progress to third level like any Irish student.

Ms O'Sullivan was speaking to reporters in Dublin amid claims the Government was abandoning asylum seekers who had completed school, including Anna Kern who graduated from Coláiste Nano Nagle in Limerick city.

Ms Kern came to Ireland in 2013 from Ukraine with her mother. She hopes to study physiotherapy at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin but fears she will be unable to do so because of the prohibitive fees.

Her school principal Marion Cummins criticised the Government for failing to provide a bridge between second level and third level for students living in direct provision.

“We take them into our schools, we embrace them, we teach them, we give them the best of Irish education – and then at the end we abandon them,” she said to Newstalk radio.

Ms O’Sullivan said she planned to call Ms Kern yesterday evening, having already met her at her constituency clinic last week.

“She is a very impressive young woman. She didn’t obviously know what points she was going to get but she expected that she might get into college.

“In fact she was talking about her third choice but obviously she has got such a fantastic result she is being offered her first choice. It’s an individual case but I will give Anna every assistance I can.”

The Minister said there had been a handful of students in different years where similar issues had arisen and “there have been ways to facilitate them”.

Individual colleges can reserve places for exceptional cases, while scholarships are another option.

Planned scheme

She said she was hoping to extend third-level access to asylum seekers but the scheme would be for “people who have gone all the way through post-primary school – five years. Anna has done two years. So we are going to see if there is another way in which she can be helped but she is a fantastic young woman and congratulations to her on her achievement.”

Irish Refugee Council chief executive Sue Conlan said it operated an education fund for 17 to 27-year-olds for continuing education but it was insufficient to handle demand.

The Institute of Guidance Counsellors has called for cuts to the guidance service in schools to be reversed, saying it hits poorer children hardest.

Asked whether she supported such a move, Ms O’Sullivan said, “I can’t preempt the budget” but it was “one of the issues we will be looking at”.

Ms O'Sullivan paid a visit yesterday to guidance counsellors operating the National Parents Council helpline (1800-265165) in Santry and The Irish Times results helpdesk (irishtimes.com/ results2015) in Tara Street.