The long wait for the choice school

Some Dublin schools now have waiting lists stretching to 2017 as parents compete for places, writes Louise Holden

It's a sobering experience to present your newborn to the world only to be asked: "What school is he down for? Better get moving or he'll never get in." Dublin mothers barely get off their post-delivery high before their child's life is wished away by well-meaning alarmists.

The truth is, there are post-primary schools in Dublin with waiting lists that stretch to 2017. There are schools in the south of Dublin that have three applicants for every first-year place. For the most prestigious schools in Dublin, you can absolutely forget about 2005/2006.

New parents of the 1980s did not queue outside St Andrew's College and Mount Anville with prams and application forms. The squeeze on the south Dublin fee-paying secondary school is a recent phenomenon, and George O'Callaghan of the Joint Managerial Body is quick to point out that schools go through periods of popularity which may not necessarily extend into the next decade.

"In a small number of cases - I'd say about 10 Dublin schools - demand exceeds supply because people perceive a school to be good and because everybody wants to go there. Schools go in and out of fashion, however. Sometimes a school loses its sheen."

However, when a school is consistently featuring in the top of the university feeder lists it's hard for parents not to feel pressured to get their children in, right?

This has not been the experience of Portmarnock Community School, a free post-primary school that featured in the list of top 10 Irish feeder schools for UCD, published by The Irish Times last year. Of the 180 places available for first-year students in 2005/2006, the school has allotted only 160.

There is no waiting list for Portmarnock Community School and while school authorities have compiled a priority list in the event of over- subscription, it has never been an issue.

If some parents are simply queuing up to pay money, the Department of Education is not prepared to indulge them. Over the last year, officials at the Department have refused capital funding to oversubscribed schools on the basis that there are unused places available locally. In other words, the Department is using financial engineering to steer students away from the in-demand school and back to the less popular alternative.

"The right of parents to choose where they send their children to school is enshrined in the Irish Constitution," says O'Callaghan. He's not eager to see the Department interfering, indirectly or otherwise.

O'Callaghan is concerned that the trend is taking Ireland towards the British model of catchment area allocation. Parents in the UK cannot apply for school places outside their designated catchment area. The rule has prompted families to move house to get into the "right" catchment area and on to the "right" school waiting list.

The system in the UK has been found to have a significant impact on house prices. It makes a mockery of the concept of free schooling in many jurisdictions. Recent research by Prof Paul Cheshire of the London School of Economics suggests that the impact of a good school on the price of a house is about the same as six years' worth of tuition at a private secondary school. "The researchers estimate that if an average house could be moved from the worst to the best possible secondary school catchment area, its value would increase by nearly 19 per cent, or £23,750 [€34,684]," according to an LSE bulletin.

Since most schools give priority to students living locally, an informal catchment system could be the net effect of a curb on the capital development of popular schools. Schools have got extremely thorough in the drafting of admissions policies since Section 29 of the Education Act of 2000 gave parents and students the right to appeal if their application is refused. Schools must lay out clearly who gets priority at the school gate if they are to avoid losing a "Section 29".

"We have been the subject of two Section 29 appeals already," says Derek West, principal of Newpark Comprehensive in Dublin and vice-president of the Association of Principals and Deputy Principals. "Our admissions policy stood up in both cases. We have learned the hard way. We don't apply quotas or any selection function that might leave us vulnerable. We take students from named feeder schools and, beyond that, places are allotted on a first come, first served basis. Many schools are still struggling to construct policies that will protect them in the event of an appeal."

For most schools, it's not really an issue. The waiting list is a fairly recent phenomenon. A handful of south Dublin private schools, a belt of post-primaries along the N4 commuter route and a cluster of inner-city Limerick schools are turning students away.

Recent population growth has created some problems in Mullingar and Naas. The Gaelscoileanna are feeling the squeeze because the primary schools outnumber the post-primary schools. The rest of the country is awash with places. Resources are another matter altogether.