Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move:

“That Seanad Éireann:

recognises that:

- the system put in place by the Department of Education has been a largely successful model for planning school places up until recently;

- the Department of Education is aware of enrolment pressures and is engaging with second-level schools in the affected areas to share application data to determine the full extent of the crisis;

- the Department and the Minister for Education are working tirelessly to ensure that all young people have an offering of a school place for the upcoming 2024/2025 academic year;

notes that:

- preliminary assessments indicate that duplication of applications to schools, as well as applications from students from outside local areas, are contributing to enrolment pressures;

- enrolment pressures in built-up urban areas and commuter towns are forcing many parents to travel long distances to find available schools;

- some students have had to avail of home tutoring as a measure of last resort while they await a school placement;

- through no fault of students and their families, many are being left behind on their education journey while they await a school placement in their catchment area;

- not attending school has a very negative impact on students’ educational and social development;

acknowledges:

- the investment made by the Minister in schools capital projects across the country in response to the increase in demand for school places in certain areas in recent years;

- the provision of home tutors and tutoring hours for students awaiting a school placement is positive but it is not adequate for the educational and social development of students;

- the Department of Education is working hard to ensure that all students are allocated a place in a school in their catchment areas;

- the Minister of Education is aware of this problem and is committed to ensuring that it is resolved quickly to provide education to all students across the country;

further acknowledges that:

- notwithstanding improvements, the scarcity of mainstream primary and second-level places, and places for children with additional needs and special classes, puts huge financial, psychological and other unnecessary stresses on parents who are already stretched as parents of children with additional needs;

- the burden of application to several schools should not fall exclusively on parents;

calls on the Government to:

- use the data available to the Department of Education’s advance planning unit, such as house building and child benefit figures, to predict shortages of places in primary and second-level schools and plan accordingly for these;

- implement a centralised school places application system whereby students in primary and second-level apply to one centralised application system for schools in their dedicated catchment area and thereby avoid duplication of applications; there are some good examples of this e.g. Limerick, and also a pilot program in Newbridge, Co Kildare;

- implement a similar system for applications to special schools to identify the best school suited for the child, while also reducing the toll on parents applying to several schools;

- provide further resourcing to increase the provision of school capital projects