Madam, – Parents whose children are of the age to start junior infants in September 2011, and who would like them to start school, have been unable to get a place for their children in their local national schools.
In our case, our son (who will be nearly five in September 2011 and who we consider will be ready to start school then) was 13th on the waiting list for St Mary’s National School, Belmont Avenue, Dublin 4. In our second-nearest school, he was 50th on the list. As a result, we have a choice of holding our child back for a year, with no guarantee of a place, or sending him to school outside our parish, or choosing a fee-paying school (for junior infants!).
Our national schools are the foundation of the Irish education system. It is astonishing that this State cannot provide for children that are the right age to start school to attend their local state school. Significant numbers of would-be junior infants entrants in the Dublin 4 and Dublin 6 areas are regularly held back, despite their parents’ wish that they should start school, because there is no place for them to start.
This affects the child’s education from then on, as well as the primary school itself. It also amounts to discrimination between the minority that can afford to go private, and those who cannot or will not because they want a national school education for their children, and whose children then have to wait an extra year to start.
What I find most alarming about the situation, and what moved me to write, is that I understand that the official line, despite representations from the school, is that there is no current problem with this catchment area. St Mary’s is an excellent school which is so over-subscribed that it could fill a second junior infant class. Indeed, I understand it would try to do so if it had the space. This is based only on the number on their waiting list (that is, not including those who do not even apply because they know there will not be a place). There is certainly some duplication since many parents put their children down for several schools, in the hope that one might have a place. Still, it seems clear there is a problem.
This situation, in our area and elsewhere, is worsening because many parents who cannot get their children into their local national school are not in a position any longer afford to effectively “bail out” the State by going private. Waiting lists have increased at many national schools compared to a few years ago.
I wonder how many other catchment areas in Ireland have this problem? How many of these children, our hope for the future, will be “temporarily” denied their right to an education in autumn 2011? What concrete plans are in place to urgently increase the number of local primary school places to meet demand?
Although it was not an issue in our case, why are State-funded schools allowed to discriminate based on the religion of the applicant and their family? The children of Ireland deserve a comprehensive national and senior school system that caters for all children whose parents wish them to be educated in state schools, without reference to their religion. That is the majority wish of parents in Ireland today, and certainly was the intention when the national school system was founded in the 19th century. – Yours, etc,