Irish schools Failing To Reflect Diversity

Some Irish secondary schools have been accused of using restrictive admissions policies to prevent students with special needs and immigrant children from enrolling.

A government audit of almost 2,000 schools has uncovered a form of educational apartheid, with minority students making a significant proportion of enrolments in certain schools and a tiny proportion in neighbouring schools.

The department has published an 80-page audit of enrolment practice showing only one in 13 primary school pupils and one in 20 secondary school students are classified as non-English or Irish speaking.

The audit also indicates that providing for special needs students, children of immigrants and Travellers at second level is largely left to vocational and community schools, with many other schools effectively opting out.

Disparities appear to be rife throughout the state. In small mixed vocational schools in the western region, just over half of the students have special needs. However, there are no such students at all-girls secondary schools in the mid-western region.

Education Minister Mary Hanafin has reportedly acknowledged the problem and says she is examining ways to address the situation. The minister said she has also written to education leaders to find out whether some school enrolment policies are exclusionary.

(DW/JM)