Growing number of children dropping out of school
LIMERICK schools are having to copper-fasten enrolment procedures with increasing numbers of parents taking legal action if their child fails to get a place in the school of their choice. And children are dropping out of school in mounting numbers since home-school liaison officers and the visiting teachers for travellers positions were abolished.
Speaking to the Limerick Post ahead of the INTO principals’ and deputy principals’ conference which was held in the city last weekend, Limerick press officer, Joe Lyons, described the drawing up of entry procedures as “a minefield”.
Mr Lyons said that management issues would be high on the agenda for the conference as these are increasingly becoming the role of the principal.
“For instance, we are seeing more and more situations where if children don’t fulfil the requirements for getting a place in their school of choice, parents are taking complaints under section 29 of the education act. Next thing you know, it ends up in the High Court. We have to be very careful and check and double check that entry requirements are correct and in line with current directives”.
Mr Lyons explained that the problem stems from a huge demand for secondary school places, particularly in the city.
“Huge estates have been built in Limerick city and that has resulted in more families needing places for their children”.
Another difficulty which principals attending the conference are aware of, Mr Lyons said, is that children are increasingly dropping out of school, although it will be some time before there are official figures to back the anecdotal evidence.
“This is becoming a real problem since the home-school liaison and the visiting teachers for Travellers schemes were dropped. Before, if a child wasn’t attending school, the liaison officer would work with the family to try to get that child back in class. If a Traveller child wasn’t in school the same would apply, and if the family were moving on the visiting teacher would phone their counterpart in the next school to say that family was coming. That’s all gone now. We don’t have official figures for the increased early school leavers yet, but we’ll be counting the cost of it in the future”.
This was the first time that the conference was held in Limerick and it attracted more than 300 delegates to Thomond Park stadium.
The theme was ‘School Leadership – Challenges and Opportunities’.
Issues addressed included future staffing models for primary schools, managing schools at a time of significant economic difficulty, and looking to the future.
A range of workshops were also organised on issues including the vetting of teachers, enrolment procedures for schools, Section 24 procedures and establishing new Boards of Management for primary schools.
