Skip to main content
Normal View

Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 11 Dec 1969

Vol. 243 No. 7

Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Access to Secondary Schools.

90.

asked the Minister for Education whether he is aware of difficulties experienced by children from national schools in securing access to secondary schools which have associated with them non-aided primary schools whose students get preference; and whether he proposes to take any action to deal with this problem.

The Deputy must know that while secondary schools receive State aid it is not open to me to dictate to them what pupils they should or should not accept. Apart from this fact I am not aware that parents generally are experiencing any great difficulty in securing places in secondary schools for their children.

It is inevitable particularly in the Dublin area that the limits set by accommodation will on occasion force some schools to refuse admission to a number of pupils.

In any case which has been brought to the attention of my Department the inspectors have succeeded in securing places for the pupils concerned.

My question asked the Minister whether he is aware of the difficulties. He seems to suggest that there are none and that, if there are any, he has solved them. This is not a very satisfactory kind of answer; it would be in a libel action but not in a Parliamentary Question. What I want to know is if he is aware that there is a problem. While it is not one for which he is to blame in any way, is he considering what can be done about it? I appreciate it would not be easy to solve it but he ought to face the fact that there is such a problem. Would he look into it and see to what extent this is a problem and what proportion of secondary schools have these preparatory sections and what proportion of places at the moment in the first year of the secondary schools are held by pupils from the non-aided preparatory sections of these schools, so that we would know the scale of the problem?

My concern is to see to it that all the children who want places in post-primary schools have them available to them. So far as I know there are no cases where a child was unable to obtain a place in a post-primary school.

Take two groups of schools in the city of Dublin. One group has a non-aided preparatory section attached to it. In principle this is an excellent arrangement, but the difficulty is that this group of schools has very limited entry for children from the national school. There is another group of schools which does not have a non-aided preparatory section and national school children can go there. This is socially divisive. I do not know the answer. I am not suggesting it is the Minister's fault. We have a potential cause of social division arising out of something which is in itself a good thing, that is, streaming the whole way through the schools.

Is the Deputy making a statement?

I would ask the Minister to look into the question and establish the scale of the problem.

Is the Minister aware that a child was refused admission to a secondary school? The secondary school manager stated that an examination was necessary. The child was not successful in the examination. I want to know is an examination necessary for admission to a secondary school? The father of this child asked that he should be allowed to remain in the primary school for a further year and then be admitted to the secondary school. This request was refused. I would ask the Minister to comment on that case. I have written to him about it.

I have not seen the details of the case yet. I will have it investigated. My responsibility is to see that so far as possible every child can have post-primary education available to him.

The father of the child I have spoken of was not consulted and we have a child of 12 years of age who has not attended school for the past four months. I have submitted details to the Minister and I asked for an immediate review of the case in view of the fact that the child is 12 years of age.

I will have the matter examined.

Top
Share