Proportion of students attending fee-charging schools falls

The proportion of students attending fee-charging secondary schools is declining, according to latest figures compiled by the Department of Education.

A total of 7.8 per cent of all boys attended private schools and 5.8 per cent of girls in 2021. This is down from a high of just over 9 per cent for boys and 7 per cent for girls in 2007.

While enrolments in many individual private schools have been growing in recent years, the fee-paying sector’s share of enrolments nationally has been declining slowly.

The figures are contained in a new statistical bulletin which provides an overview of education trends between 2001 and 2021.

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Overall, student numbers at second level climbed to a record 391,698 in 2021, an increase of 12,514 on 2020, or almost 40,000 over the past five years.

The largest increases over the past decade are mostly in so-called commuter-belt counties near Dublin such as Laois (40 per cent), Meath (38 per cent), Wicklow (36 per cent) and Kildare (35 per cent).

Enrolment trends also show the growing importance of large schools in the post-primary system.

While small schools (fewer than 300 pupils) made up just under 30 per cent of all schools in 2011, this dropped to 22.5 per cent in 2021. The number of very large schools (800-plus pupils) has more than doubled (from 58 to 132) over the same period.

At primary level, by contrast, enrolments have started to decline in recent times and are projected to fall further over the next 12 years.

Pupils numbers in the sector stood at almost 555,000 in September 2021, a fall of almost 7,000 on 2020.

Enrolment data is fixed to the school census date of September 30th, 2021, and, accordingly, enrolments of an estimated 5,000 Ukrainian children at primary level and 2,000 at second level are not included in the headline figures.

The data also shows that Catholic schools continue to dominate at primary level and account for 88.6 per cent of national schools.

Over the past decade the total number of mainstream primary schools has declined by 55.

A total of 126 Catholic schools and 12 Church of Ireland schools closed over this period, while the number of multidenominational schools has increased by 80.

The closures are the result of declining enrolments and the amalgamation of schools in proximity to each other.

On class sizes at primary, the report notes that that there has been little change since 2001, although it reached its lowest point in 2021 at 22.8 pupils.

The number of pupils in classes of 35 or more fell sharply, however, between 2001 (13,844) and 2021 (2,748), while those in the next-largest category (30-34) stood at 63,356 in 2021, down from 120,665 in 2015.

There is also evidence that the starting age of junior infants is continuing to increase, most likely linked to the introduction and expansion of free preschool from one year to two.

Overall, the proportion of four year olds (and younger) in junior infants has fallen from 46.5 per cent in 2001 to 16.5 per cent in 2021.

Reacting to the report’s findings, the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) said 66,000 primary pupils remained in “supersized classes” and Irish primary class sizes were still well above the European Union average of 20.

INTO general secretary John Boyle said the figures provided a “damning assessment of the glacial pace of tackling Ireland’s supersized class sizes.

“This is simply unacceptable and, unless it is addressed quickly, it will remain a major barrier to the post-pandemic recovery needed in primary education,” he said.

“It is now over 20 years since the then minister for education, now An Taoiseach Micheál Martin, stated that there was `no place in a modern education system for overcrowded classes’.”