Court backs 'old boy' admissions policy at school [Independent.ie]
- Published: 26 July 2011
EDUCATION Minister Ruairi Quinn is on a collision course with school managers after a court yesterday upheld their right to enforce 'old boy' enrolment policies.
Mr Quinn has made it clear he will, if necessary, introduce legislation aimed at banning practices such as favouring the children of past pupils and teachers.
However, a ruling by the Circuit Court in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, yesterday threw this into doubt. It found that a school had not unfairly discriminated against a Traveller boy by using a 'parental rule' as part of its admissions policy.
Judge Thomas Teehan said the policy of the High School in Clonmel was justified, appropriate and necessary to fulfil the school's family ethos.
He set aside a ruling of the Equality Authority which found that the school had indirectly discriminated against local Traveller boy John Stokes because he was unlikely to have had a parent in secondary school.
Full Story: www.independent.ie
School wins appeal in action over admissions [IrishTimes]
- Published: 26 July 2011
THE OIREACHTAS should look at making positive discrimination mandatory for schools in their admissions policies, a judge suggested yesterday as he allowed an appeal by a secondary school against a ruling that it had discriminated against a Traveller boy refusing him admission.
At the Circuit Court in Clonmel, Judge Tom Teehan acknowledged that the legislators must, like both the courts and school boards who frame admissions policies, seek to strike a balance between legitimate competing interests in relation to school policies.
Judge Teehan made his comments when he allowed an appeal by Christian Brothers High School in Clonmel against a decision by the Equality Tribunal which found that the school had indirectly discriminate against Travellers when it refused a Traveller boy admission.
John Stokes (13), through his mother, Mary, and instructed by the Irish Traveller Movement Independent Law Centre, lodged the complaint against the school on the grounds that it had breached the Equal Status Act when it failed to admit him to the school.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
Refusal to reopen school challenged [IrishTimes]
- Published: 26 July 2011
A High Court challenge has been brought to the Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn’s refusal to reopen a rural primary school in Co Tipperary.
It is alleged Mr Quinn has reversed a promise by the previous government that Knock National School, near Roscrea, Co Tipperary, would reopen in September.
The school closed in 2003 when the number of pupils attending fell to just three. However, numbers increased in recent years and, following lobbying from locals, the outgoing minister for education Mary Coughlan recommended last March that the school be reopened in September.
In a letter from Mr Quinn received on July 19th last, it was stated the school would not be reopened.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
Will Quinn impose sanctions to stop 'apartheid' in schools? [IrishTimes]
- Published: 26 July 2011
ANALYSIS: WHILE THE judge ruled in favour of the Clonmel school, this case has been groundbreaking.
Despite yesterday’s ruling, Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn appears determined to press ahead with changes to school admissions policies.
It was one of the factors that prompted the Minister to publish a discussion document on school admission policies in June.
In the Clonmel case, the school gave priority to Catholic applicants whose fathers or brothers were past pupils.
In practice, this means that a whole swathe of students – Travellers, most foreign nationals and non-Catholics among them – can be excluded from the school.
For the department, and particularly for Quinn, this kind of exclusion is intolerable, especially when the range of alternative (ie non-Catholic ) school options is so limited in most rural towns.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
'It's not fair and it's not right. All I want for my son is what any mother wants' [IrishTimes]
- Published: 26 July 2011
THE MOTHER of the Traveller boy at the centre of yesterday’s court case expressed her disappointment at the court’s decision and said she will go to the European Court of Human Rights if necessary to vindicate her son’s right to be educated in his home town.
Mary Stokes said she felt “very let down by the judge and the court and the whole education system” after Judge Tom Teehan set aside a ruling by the Equality Tribunal that her son, John, had been the victim of indirect discrimination by Christian Brothers High School in Clonmel. “I’m devastated, to be honest, but I’m not going to leave it at this – I’m going to appeal it. All I want for my son is what any mother wants, the best education they can get. He’s a bright enthusiastic boy who’s willing to learn and all we seem to meet are obstacle after obstacle.”
With no place in the school, John must catch a bus at 7.30am to travel the 10 miles to Fethard, and doesn’t get home until 5.30pm each day, with the transport costing the family some €30 a week, she said. “It’s not fair and it’s not right – we’re Travellers and proud to be Travellers but we want to be treated as equals with everyone else,” said Ms Stokes, a mother of seven who, along with her husband, has been living in Clonmel for 16 years.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
