Temporary classrooms may be provided for oversubscribed secondary schools to ensure children do not go without school places next September.
Many parents in parts of Kildare, Wicklow, Dublin, Galway and Cork have been unable to secure first-year secondary school places in their local areas in advance of the coming academic year.
Minister for Education Norma Foley said on Wednesday that her department was engaging directly with schools in the areas affected to determine how many school places are needed. She said if no spaces were available within existing buildings, additional temporary accommodation may be provided to boost capacity.
In the north Kildare and north Wicklow areas alone, campaigners estimate that up to 150 children are without school places.
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Ms Foley said the duplication of applications and students applying from outside local areas may be driving a requirement for additional school places, in addition to population growth.
However, in the case of Greystones in north Wicklow – where an estimated 70 children are estimated to be without school places – campaigners say there is no duplication of applications as secondary schools in the area share their enrolment data.
[ ‘We’ve been failed by the Government’: Families left without school placesOpens in new window ]
All three secondary schools in the town – Temple Carraig School, St David’s Holy Faith Secondary School and Greystones Community College – are oversubscribed.
The three principals of the schools warned last year that there would be 72 fewer secondary school places in the 2024/25 school year due to delays in constructing permanent school buildings.
Greystones Community College, which has been taking on additional year groups due to enrolment pressures locally, is based in temporary accommodation spread across the local GAA and rugby clubs.
In recent years it has taken on additional classes due to local enrolment pressures. However, it has had to reduce its intake this year from 144 to 96 places due to delays in providing a permanent 1,000-pupil school building and limited space in its temporary accommodation.
Anya Llewellyn, chair of Greystones Community College’s building committee, said the enrolment situation was “out of control” and a direct consequence of poor planning and delays in providing school buildings.
She said many parents and their children, who in some case live within metres of their school, were anxious that they could not secure a school place. “It is causing extreme stress and anxiety for the parents and students seeking to enter secondary school each year,” she said.
She said the use of prefabs was expensive and limited the capacity of schools to deliver the full curriculum due to the absence of facilities such as science labs.
“The issue Greystones has will not be resolved until the school is built,” she said. “The situation is at a crisis point for families in with children due to start first year in 2024, 2025 and in 2026. The three secondary schools in Greystones simply do not have enough school places for the number of children that are currently attending 6th class, 5th class and 4th class.”
In a statement, the Department of Education said it has invested heavily in school capital projects in recent years in response to the increase in demand for school places in order to ensure that “there is a school place for every child”.
It said data on applications for admissions has been received by the Department from post primary schools across areas of enrolment pressure and updated data on offers and acceptances continues to be received as admissions processes transact.
Ms Foley said she was confident that school places will be available all children who need them.
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