No ideal formula on school places
Related Articles
Yesterday in the High Court, John Stokes lost a second battle against the refusal of the Christian Brothers High School in Clonmel to accept him as a pupil. But there are more battles to come, possibly in the Supreme Court, possibly in terms of legislation.
John, now aged 14, failed to get a place in the school because he did not fulfil one of the criteria for priority in the competition for places. This was having, or having had, a parent or sibling educated in the school.
Most people would regard that as reasonable grounds for giving priority to an application. But was it fair in this case? John is a Traveller, and the eldest child in his family. In the nature of things, he could not have a sibling at the school, and in his father's time only a small minority of Traveller boys received a secondary education.
Although there was no intention to discriminate against him, did the decision constitute "indirect discrimination"? In other words, did the grounds for priority for entry disadvantage Travellers without setting out to do so? The Irish Traveller Movement thought so, and so did the Equality Tribunal. The tribunal ruled in John's favour in December 2010.
But in July last year, the Circuit Court overturned the Equality Tribunal ruling, and yesterday the High Court upheld the Circuit Court's decision.
Whether or not the case goes as far as the Supreme Court, it appears extremely likely that there will be fresh legislation on the subject. One month before the Circuit Court ruling, Education Minister Ruairi Quinn published a discussion paper on a "regulatory framework for school enrolment", which addresses the same questions considered by the Equality Tribunal and the courts.
Only 20pc of schools have enrolment problems; the other 80pc have sufficient places. The 20pc have to decide methods of selection. There is no perfect system of priorities, and the question arises whether priorities should be abandoned and places allocated by lottery.
The mere mention of such a possibility will give rise to intense opposition. It is viewed unfavourably by the managements of both Catholic and Protestant secondary schools. It would seem to introduce a form of reverse discrimination -- discrimination against families that may have had close relations with a school for generations.
A remedy, however, still has to be found for cases like that of John Stokes, and those like him who have to make their way through the education system while suffering, outside it, from widespread prejudice. The system itself -- as the High Court found yesterday in the Clonmel instance -- does not discriminate against Travellers, but means must be devised to banish even the appearance of discrimination.
Irish Independent
