Gaelcholáiste to offer more first-year places
December 16, 2013
A Cork city centre gaelcholáiste is offering more first-year places next autumn, which could ease difficulties for some families disappointed by a one-third cut in intake at a northside all-Irish college.
The move by Coláiste Daibhéid, a Cork Education and Training Board (CETB) school, will see first-year enrolments rise from 40 to 58 for the coming year after the board decided to consider late applications, which will be accepted up to at least the end of January. It follows anger among families of children at northside gaelscoileanna and other primary schools at enrolment changes at Gaelcholáiste Mhuire AG at the North Monastery. It will enrol just two first-year classes with 58 students next September, having accepted three classes with more than 80 students in recent years.
The school, owned by Edmund Rice Schools Trust, said student numbers are up almost 100 to 445 since 2010 and there were overcrowding concerns. But a decision has yet be made on whether to seek funding for extra permanent accommodation to cater for the continued high demand. Coláiste Daibhéid principal Tadhg Ó Laighin said his school’s move to modern, fully-equipped classrooms at the CETB campus on Sawmill St in the last year enabled the board of management to take the decision last week. The school has more than 220 boys and girls enrolled and students come from gaelscoileanna across the city and county.
“We are unusual in many ways as our catchment area is not defined by a physical boundary but by a language boundary, that is to say our potential students are any students who have Irish or who have the potential to operate through the medium of Irish,” Mr Ó Laighin said. With some local schools, particularly all-Irish primary schools, highly disappointed that their pupils are among around 50 turned down by Gaelcholáiste Mhuire for 2014, plans are being devised for a new gaelcholáiste in the area. But the Department of Education has told the Irish Examiner that it has no plans to provide any new second-level schools on the city’s northside. It can only sanction new schools after determining there is sufficient population growth and then after prospective patrons have had a chance to show demand for their type of school in an area.
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