A campaign by fee-paying schools against legislation that would regulate admissions policies is set to intensify after school representatives met at Blackrock College, Dublin, to rally support for their cause.
The meeting last week was attended by a number of principals and past pupils, including several lawyers, from prominent fee-paying schools in Leinster.
Representatives from a small number of public schools also attended, along with the Catholic Church’s main spokesman on education, Fr Michael Drumm; and Ferdia Kelly, general secretary of the joint managerial body which represents almost two-thirds of secondary schools.
The main objection of the fee-paying schools is to a provision that would stop them from guaranteeing places for children of past pupils. Under current proposals, schools could reserve a maximum of 25 per cent of places for such pupils.
The past pupils union at Blackrock College has written to its members claiming this amounts to “unjust State interference” with the community of self-styled “Rockmen”.
The past pupils union at Jesuit school Belvedere College has also written to its alumni, claiming the Bill was "a stealth tactic, to destroy private institutions like Belvedere College".
The unions have encouraged fellow fee-paying colleges to write letters of objection to Minister for Education Jan O’Sullivan.
‘Soft barriers’
The meeting was held in the same week that new research showed some schools were erecting “soft barriers” to children with special educational needs through “exclusionary clauses” in their admissions policies.
The study by Project Iris (Inclusive Research in Irish Schools) for the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) expressed concern about school admissions policies which proclaimed to be inclusive, while retaining "opt out" clauses for children with special educational needs.
The Irish Times asked Blackrock College about a clause in its admissions policy stating: "As the DES [department] does not provide Blackrock College with an ex-quota special needs teacher, we can only cater in any given year for a certain number of pupils with learning support requirements."
Declined to reply
Asked whether this might deter parents of children with special educational needs from applying to Blackrock College, the school declined to reply.
The school also declined to explain what it meant by “special needs teacher” when no such post exists in the Irish education system.
In a statement, the department said: “There is no difference between the manner in which resource teaching posts are allocated to fee-paying schools by the NCSE to support pupils with either low-incidence or high-incidence special educational needs.”
However, fee-paying schools did not receive an additional learning support provision equivalent to 0.9 of a post or 1.4 posts depending on the size of the school.
Explaining his attendance at the meeting, Mr Kelly said he had been invited to address the gathering on the joint managerial body’s engagement to date on the admissions Bill.
The body, which represents 400 voluntary secondary schools, including the State’s 50 fee-paying ones, has expressed concern about the department “micromanaging” school policies.
