Is it time to overhaul the secondary schools admission process and standardise the process? 

The Department of Education allows schools significant leeway to set their own admission criteria. 

Some parents believe this is unfair and means some children fall through the gaps. 

On The Hard Shoulder, Gary O’Sullivan, Chair of the Secondary School Crisis Action Group, explained why he believes the system urgently needs reform. 

“In October ‘23, we applied for the first time for our son to get a secondary school place for September 2024,” he said. 

“Along with a whole cohort of other people, we were aware of the issue from the previous year, so we applied to a total of eight schools. 

“When the first offers came out a number of weeks later, we found out that we hadn’t had an offer from any schools and we were on a waiting list for all eight schools.”

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