A NATIONAL school has brought a High Court challenge aimed at overturning a direction from the Department of Education and Science requiring it to enrol two more pupils when it had earlier refused to enrol 41 others because of lack of space.
The court was told that St Molaga's National School, Balbriggan, Co Dublin, which takes pupils from third to sixth class, had reluctantly decided to take judicial review proceedings against the department because of the major implications for it and other schools.
The case arises from an appeal against the school's refusal to enrol two girls. At the time it rejected the request from their mother, the school had already turned down applications from 41 other prospective pupils. The mother was also told there were no places available in other schools in the locality, the school said.
The mother appealed St Molaga's refusal to a committee set up under the Education Act. That committee recommended that the school take the girls, saying it had the capacity. The secretary general of the Department of Education and Science directed St Molaga's to comply.
The school board then took its court proceedings alleging the decision was irrational and wrong in law. The case is against the secretary general of the Department of Education and Science and the appeals committee, while the parents of the two children involved are notice parties. The defendants deny the claims.
The court was told yesterday that accommodation in the school was so tight that the principal sometimes had to put a table in a corridor to do his work so as to free up a room for such matters as psychological assessments.
Feichín McDonagh SC, for the school, said the decision of the appeals committee was "an extraordinary development" because it changed the traditional situation where boards of management decided the basis on which pupils were enrolled.
The appeals committee decided on April 28th that the school could accommodate the children, partly based on classroom-size figures supplied by the school, he said.
As the 41 children already refused places were not on a waiting list, the committee said the school could take these two children who were looking for places in 3rd and 4th class.
Mr McDonagh said the committee's decision was flawed because it did not take account of the fact that the school was already operating at capacity. It has 16 teachers and was entitled to a 17th based on having 457 pupils but simply did not have the accommodation for another class.
The court heard St Molaga's had expanded rapidly in the last 10 years. It has 12 classrooms in pre-fabricated units and had refused to take another pre-fab because the electrical system would need a major upgrade. The board of management is willing to expand to a 24-classroom school but only if permanent accommodation was provided, which had not been forthcoming, the court heard.
Caitríona O'Reilly, chairwoman of the board, said in an affidavit that the board was "at a loss to understand" the basis of the committee's "inexplicable" finding.
The case continues today before Ms Justice Mary Irvine.