22% of unfilled places in WELB: highest no. in Catholic sector

Announcing his radical plans for education in Northern Ireland last week Education Minister John O’Dowd blasted: “We have too many schools that do not have the capacity to give children the broad and rich educational experience they deserve. Schools which, in some cases, have lost the confidence of the parents, pupils and communities they were built to serve.

“Our latest enrolment figures show that our schools have almost 85,000 spare places, that is the equivalent of more than 150 schools. A third of our 863 primary schools have fewer than 100 children enrolled and a fifth of our 217 post-primary schools have fewer than 400 pupils.”

The actual figure was 84,605 unfilled places across the province. The North Eastern Board had 17,109 unfilled places; the Southern Board had 16,869; the Belfast Board had 16,072; and the South Eastern Board had 15,800.

Mr O’Dowd outlined the figures in response to an Assembly Question tabled by UUP MLA David McNarry.

He gave figures for each board and stated: “In the academic year 2010-11 there were 1016 funded schools (including 25 nursery schools) which had unfilled places, out of 1161 schools (including 98 nursery schools). There were a total of 84,605 unfilled places (including 119 unfilled places in nursery schools) distributed across the Education and Library Board areas.”

He explained that the figures excluded the enrolments of 9563 pupils in receipt of a statement of special educational needs.

They also excluded 138 pupils admitted on appeal by the Education and Library Board appeal tribunals or by direction of the independent Exceptional Circumstances Body, as they were admitted over and above a school’s approved enrolment number.

Responding to a separate Assembly Question from DUP MLA Mervyn Storey, Mr O’Dowd revealed that the highest number of unfilled places at post-primary level in WELB last year was in the Catholic maintained sector.

In 2010/11 there were 2,970 unfilled places across all maintained schools out of a capacity of 12,540. In the controlled sector - including controlled grammar schools - there were 950 unfilled places out of a capacity of 6,695.

In the voluntary grammar sector there were 193 unfilled places out of a capacity of 8,590. And in the integrated sector - including controlled integrated schools - there were 18 unfilled places out of a capacity of 1,780.

The highest number of unfilled places at primary level in WELB was also in the maintained sector - 10,271 unfilled places out of a capacity of 27,777. There were 4,106 unfilled places out of a capacity of 11,635 in controlled primaries; 122 unfilled places out of a capacity of 521 in the Irish medium sector; and 91 unfilled places out of a capacity of 1,172 in the integrated sector.