Total of 44 pupils without school places being taught at home

Kenneth Fox

Dozens of pupils who have been unable to find places in mainstream schools since last September are being taught at home, new figures show.

In some parts of the country, especially the Dublin commuter belt, some families have struggled to find school places for their children, with pressure most acute at second level.

As The Irish Times reports, Department of Education data shows a total of 44 pupils without school places are being taught at home under a home tuition scheme aimed at providing a compensatory education service.

Under the scheme, families receive a grant to employ a qualified tutor to provide up to nine hours of home tuition per week.

For the coming school year, parents of children in areas of high enrolment pressure are being advised by education authorities to apply to multiple secondary schools due to the volume of oversubscribed places in such areas.

Almost half of all secondary schools across the State are set to be oversubscribed in the coming school year, with the highest concentration in areas where there has been rapid population growth such as parts of Dublin, Kildare, Wicklow, Galway and Cork. Authorities insist all children who need a school place will get one.

Minister for Education Norma Foley had aimed to trial a common applications system — where parents would fill out a single form stating their school preference — to alleviate anxieties for parents. This, however, has not progressed in time for the coming school year.

In the west Dublin area, a high enrolment pressure zone, Fine Gael Senator Emer Currie said the enrolment system was “torturous”.

“They’re asking parents to swamp multiple schools with applications, and that leads to one thing — more oversubscription, more bulging waiting lists, and more worry and panic for parents who won’t believe there’s a school place at the end of a 300-student waiting list,” she said.

Too many students, she said, were securing places at the last moment, when they may have already bought uniforms and iPads for another school.

In a sign of the growing issue of mental health problems, a further 150 young people receive home tuition because of “school refusal” or anxiety issues.