Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Eamonn Farrell/Photocall Ireland

Almost 4% increase in children enrolled in multi-denominational schools

Education Minister Joe McHugh said the figures reflect the changes taking place in the patronage of Irish schools.

THE NUMBER OF children enrolled in primary and secondary schools has risen by almost 10,000 according to the Department of Education.

Preliminary enrolment numbers in primary and post-primary schools show a 3.6% increase in children enrolled in multi-denominational schools. Enrolments in Catholic schools increased 0.4% in September this year.

The total number of pupils enrolled in both primary and post-primary schools rose by 9,799 for the 2018/2019 school year to 922,458.

At primary level, there was an increase of 4,318 compared to last year and at secondary level the increase was 5,481 pupils.

The largest increase in enrolments in multi-denominational schools (7.7%) was at primary level.

The research also found that small schools remain a distinctive feature of the primary education system in Ireland, with 708 schools having 60 or fewer pupils enrolled for the 2018/2019 school year.

These schools accounted for 22.8% of all schools yet represented just 4.4% of the total enrolments.

Minister for Education Joe McHugh said the figures “reflect the important changes taking place in the patronage of our schools, with more choice available to parents”.

“At secondary level the number of multi-denominational schools has increased almost by 9%in the last 10 years from 321 in 2009 to 349 in 2018. At primary level the the number of multi-denominational schools has risen from 73 to 119 – an increase of 63%.

“There is also a move towards larger schools in our post-primary system as enrolments increase each year.

“These numbers provide essential data to enable the department to plan and to implement the change processes underway to provide for greater diversity and choice in our education system.”

Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.

Close
96 Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic. Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy here before taking part.
Leave a Comment
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Nollaig Elliot
    Favourite Nollaig Elliot
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 10:17 AM

    People just get angry and offended by everything now ffs. I am so happy to have grown up in the generation I did. Giving the whole world a platform has just made things too sensitive.

    177
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Daniel O'Connor
    Favourite Daniel O'Connor
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 10:35 AM

    @Nollaig Elliot: I cant believe you just said that. Apologise immediately to me, before I cry

    81
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Kieran Conroy
    Favourite Kieran Conroy
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 11:13 AM

    @Nollaig Elliot: You are 100% correct.Everyone is SOOO fu@king sensitive now.These snowflakes wouldn’t have been much good between 1939-1945.The ‘always offended” pussy generation.

    63
    See 11 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Deborah Behan
    Favourite Deborah Behan
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 11:44 AM

    @Kieran Conroy: nothing turns you lot into raging snowflakes like an article on women! Boom your head explodes! It’s so funny!

    13
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute MK76
    Favourite MK76
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 12:05 PM

    @Kieran Conroy: Right on Kieran.

    You must have enjoyed letting the Catholic Church do all your thinking for you, while at the same time meekly turning a blind eye to child abuse, institutionalization of single mothers, overt racism and the criminalization of homosexuals.

    They were the good old days alright.

    13
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Avina Laaf
    Favourite Avina Laaf
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 12:25 PM

    @Nollaig Elliot:
    I’m offended by your comment.

    7
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Kieran Conroy
    Favourite Kieran Conroy
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 12:49 PM

    @Deborah Behan: Hi Deb! Happy new year.x

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Kieran Conroy
    Favourite Kieran Conroy
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 12:51 PM

    @MK76: Actually I hate all religion.Doesn’t take away from the fact that we now have a generation of easily offended weaklings.

    12
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Misanthrope
    Favourite Misanthrope
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 1:45 PM

    @Deborah Behan: it’s not the article that ticks people off its the feminazi lunatic commentary that makes one want to shoot oneself in the face.

    10
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute MK76
    Favourite MK76
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 2:24 PM

    @Kieran Conroy: So you think speaking out against and/or calling out racism, bigotry, misogyny, anti-semitism etc is a sign of weakness?

    You’ll find that says a lot more about you, than anybody else.

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Margaret Lane
    Favourite Margaret Lane
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 4:11 PM

    I really doubt people are offended any more than they ever were. It has just become acceptable to say so now. When I was a child in the ’80s, there was always a sense that if you were bullied, you must be weak or “too quiet” or in some way have brought it on yourself, so for that reason, most people who were being bullied, denied it vigorously if anybody asked them about it. To admit somebody was treating you badly was seen as an indictment of you, as if you were somehow responsible for somebody else’s behaviour. And so, people suffered in silence.

    Now we have realised for the most part, that this is ridiculous and extremely harmful. We have seen how abusers and bullies continued to abuse and bully others because nobody ever reported them. So it has become more acceptable to say “no, it not OK to bully/abuse/make racist comments to me.”

    So it looks as if more people are hurt by being abused or bullied but I don’t think people in the past were any less upset. They were just told to shut up and put up with it.

    10
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Misanthrope
    Favourite Misanthrope
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 5:03 PM

    @Margaret Lane: the same situation pertains now. People in a stronger position bully, use and manipulate weaker people. Just an unpleasant fact of life. Men are no more likely to look for help today as they were yesterday. May be different for women I don’t know.

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Alois Irlmaier
    Favourite Alois Irlmaier
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 8:34 PM

    @Nollaig Elliot: Peoples egos are to blame, their arrogance has made them think they are right especially if others agree with them. This has killed off free speech with free ideas as well as free will, people have lost their individualism for the sake of fitting in and being noticed, they want to be accepted now and belong, they don’t care what is right or wrong as long as they can fit in and get noticed.
    Anger is a form of being spoilt, always getting their way from bad parenting as anger comes from a lack of control and at its heart is being spoilt. Always getting your way as a child never prepares anyone to deal with setbacks or hardships, so when it happens they are never mature enough to handle it. So I think they turn this rejection onto themselves or onto others them as in bullying. The mass media has replaced parents and parenting now and the things it teaches should be the domain of parents but parents now expect teachers to parent instead of them. People are losing how and what to do because they spent too much time listening to others telling them what to believe, feel and think. Mainly due to the culture from the U.S. of consumerism with their morals broadcasted into their homes from the media made by people who are like Harvey Weinstein and his like. No one thinks for themselves and that is why they’re so angry because they don’t know what they really want, how to get what they want and how to be happy with what they have?

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Eddie Nugent
    Favourite Eddie Nugent
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 11:47 PM

    @MK76: first dig at the CC for 2018 was hoping you would ease back a bit you are a boring clown

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Adrian
    Favourite Adrian
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 10:25 AM

    It was the year of getting a very immature, image obsessed taoiseach!

    79
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Alois Irlmaier
    Favourite Alois Irlmaier
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 8:19 PM

    @Adrian: We live in the age of fakeness, mass consumerism, Trumps twitter rants, May’s brainless decisions, EU corruption and Bankers greed as well as thick snowflakes. Society dictates what it becomes from behaving as it does, it feeds itself because society is breaking down, the end of empires has begun because everything is so corrupt now that it has lost its backbone which is needed for to survive?
    http://flhef.org/pdf/The%20Cycle%20of%20Nations.pdf

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute John003
    Favourite John003
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 10:10 AM

    You forgot election of Macron in France both major parties lost the election….Anger of electroate…Is making thousands of public servants redundant and promises to cut public spending in France by €60 billion over 5 years…Still seen by mainstream media as a great socialist leader…Merkel in Germany also electroate angry at her immigration policy….No anger in Ireland however….

    55
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Dennis Laffey
    Favourite Dennis Laffey
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 10:18 AM

    @John003: you seem to be speaking for electorates of other populations which both rejected the reactionary right wing politics that personifies the kind of undirected anger being talked about. And Macron is not seen as a socialist, no one talks about him as a socialist. You might be confusing economic policy (he’s right of center, especially for France) with social policies (he’s a moderate, not all that liberal really).
    Yeah not sure what you’re on about really.

    32
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Fiona deFreyne
    Favourite Fiona deFreyne
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 10:36 AM

    @John003: Macron was nominally a member of the Socialist Party in France from 2006 to 2009 so as to hold unsecured positions but he was never an actual socialist. His background is that of senior civil servant in economics and finance as well as previously an Investment Banker. The mainstream media has never depicted Macron as socialist and therefore your comment is uninformed as well as inaccurate.

    18
    See 1 more reply ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Nosmo King
    Favourite Nosmo King
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 10:59 AM

    Goosfraba !

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute John Judd
    Favourite John Judd
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 10:28 AM

    If I believed everything in the media I would

    33
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Dave Sherman
    Favourite Dave Sherman
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 10:10 AM

    It was the year of watching the orange train wreck..over and over again.

    26
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Alois Irlmaier
    Favourite Alois Irlmaier
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 8:46 PM

    @Dave Sherman: Capt. America on twitter living in Lalaland?

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute The Bunk
    Favourite The Bunk
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 10:06 AM

    Can’t we all just get along!

    23
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Shane Cormican
    Favourite Shane Cormican
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 10:09 AM

    @The Bunk: did you not read the article .. because we are angry

    9
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute John Hayes
    Favourite John Hayes
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 10:20 AM

    @The Bunk: if ye don’t shut up I’ll fuking kill ye !!

    18
    See 2 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Misanthrope
    Favourite Misanthrope
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 1:49 PM

    @The Bunk: just think of the children

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Alois Irlmaier
    Favourite Alois Irlmaier
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 8:38 PM

    @The Bunk: No, too many are telling others that their wrong because they think it makes them look right?

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Kieran Conroy
    Favourite Kieran Conroy
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 11:19 AM

    2018.The year of destroying the far left s@umbags once and for all.God bless President Trump.Long may he reign.

    25
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Alois Irlmaier
    Favourite Alois Irlmaier
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 8:39 PM

    @Kieran Conroy: He’s a sociopath?

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Leadóg
    Favourite Leadóg
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 11:12 AM

    Why won’t drivers indicate at roundabouts? Aaarrrgghh.

    22
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Alois Irlmaier
    Favourite Alois Irlmaier
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 8:40 PM

    @Leadóg: Because they are that arrogant that they expect you to be psychic?

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Fiona deFreyne
    Favourite Fiona deFreyne
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 10:28 AM

    Read “Age of Anger” by Pankaj Mishra. There is a trend to rise in anger and rage but it strarted before 2017 although it was more emphasised in degree in 2017 than before.

    Social media has set a trend for dissemination of feelomgs of anger and conventional media is responding to the public attitude of looking for more and more angry content.

    Trump acquired the US Presidency on the back of anger. Anger is produced by fear and hate. People can be more easily manipulated by negative emotions than positive emotions, responding uncritically when the more primitive parts of the brain are excited.

    The hard right and the ultra right, authoritarianism and fascism thrive in a climate of anger generated by fear and hate. A manipulated politician sees sources of fear where there are nine and becomes blind to what should sources of fear.

    17
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Liam
    Favourite Liam
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 10:50 AM

    @Fiona deFreyne: I couldn’t have described the whole feminist movement better myself. Great comment Fiona. Feminism and its authoritarian nature is a result of this ‘anger’ you talk of.
    Great to know, as I can now get back to ignoring them.

    34
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Fiona deFreyne
    Favourite Fiona deFreyne
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 10:52 AM

    @Liam: you lack the power of comprehension by keep trying.

    13
    See 3 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Deborah Behan
    Favourite Deborah Behan
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 11:41 AM

    @Fiona deFreyne: don’t feed the troll Fiona.

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Patrick J. O'Rourke
    Favourite Patrick J. O'Rourke
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 12:28 PM

    @Fiona deFreyne: That’s all very Yoda but the labels you use are somewhere confusing. Hard right, ultra right etc etc are actually given by people like you to those who are angry because governments and institutions make decisions and cannot be challenged or changed. As we know if you have been negatively affected by the EU stance of migration and you dare say anything you are labelled and silenced. Today in Germany a law comes into use that enables them silence all opposition to the government’s policies on social media as it will be branded as hare speech. We’ve been seeing it already on facebook where they are using a sledgehammer to crack a walnut. Its that totalitarian approach to silence unlicensed opinion that causes anger. I have to say I’ve been shocked at what FB have been doing.

    12
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Alois Irlmaier
    Favourite Alois Irlmaier
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 8:57 PM

    @Fiona deFreyne: I think the right and left now are different sides of the same coin especially when the left in the U.S. can burn peoples property on them, injure and threaten others with murder. All violence is the same on both sides, as Dr. No said East and West are just points on a compass, the same now can be said about the left and right in politics and in society.
    Balance is about treating others as you would like them to treat you and that is the key of society but society is changing due to politics and due to social media especially when ones can hide under handles that allows them to be as negative as they like because the feel they don’t have control. Racism, sectarianism, poverty and class all create a feeling of not being in control and this lack of control can create racism, sectarianism, classism and hatred, it creates and feeds itself and draws itself to itself especially when like can attract like on the world wide web, the more people find others who believe, feel and act as they do then the more they think that they are right and then the more extreme things become and all because people are sheep-like in their nature?

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Brian Lenehan
    Favourite Brian Lenehan
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 11:36 AM

    Yeah, the Left sure like to whinge! Everyone else just gets on with it. In the US the stock market is flourishing, unemployment is down, the POTUS is getting through his pre-election promises at a fair rate.
    Here, the stability brought about by the minority government and its “confidence & supply” arrangement with Fianna Fáil has brought about significant successes such as reduced unemployment rate, early repayment of debts, etc. Sure, homelessness and the cost of housing continues to be a bi

    14
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Brian Lenehan
    Favourite Brian Lenehan
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 11:38 AM

    @Brian Lenehan: … big issue, and I’m not sure that any government would be able to resolve it without a referendum to remove or amend the right to property, but in the whole there’s a lot to be happy about.

    7
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Margaret Lane
    Favourite Margaret Lane
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 4:13 PM

    Though of course Trump has had no time to have any impact on the economy yet, so if the economy of the U.S. is doing well, it is all to the credit of Obama and possibly Bush.

    We won’t know what impact Trump has on the economy for a good few years yet.

    1
    See 1 more reply ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Alois Irlmaier
    Favourite Alois Irlmaier
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 8:42 PM

    @Brian Lenehan: People haven’t yet realised what the outcome of what he is doing and it will hit them like a 10 tonne truck when they do…

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Paul Jennings
    Favourite Paul Jennings
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 10:55 AM

    If we could be angry in a more positive way…All the petty acts of terrorism but not one really good revolution. Only so much marching and pillow punching you can do. If anything, 2017 was “the year of fear” – anxiously looking over your shoulder. And yet another year in the sorry saga of “talking about but doing nothing about” the big three: loneliness, homelessness and mental illness. 2017 was a wasted year.

    14
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Alois Irlmaier
    Favourite Alois Irlmaier
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 9:03 PM

    @Paul Jennings: Anger can never be used in a positive way, it is always destructive, anger never accepts, motivates or handles anything in a positive way. It just adds to more negativity.
    What people need is motivation, love, acceptance, growth and a reality check. Nothing ever gets changed because people never own anything, they pass the buck and kick the can down the road and so things keep getting worse as a result. It never helps because people have their own priorities and these are always selfish and self absorbed?

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Thought for Food
    Favourite Thought for Food
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 1:14 PM

    So when is the Journal going to cover the fact that the founder of Esprit and a political backer of Clinton was found out to be paying $500,000 dollars to back women accusing Trump of sexual assault during the election campaign?

    Corruption and unethical politics by the Democrats and their supporters seems like a pretty important topic.

    12
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Jonathan Byrne
    Favourite Jonathan Byrne
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 10:11 AM

    Ah 2018 we’re more prepared to better ourselves than than we were 2017 .

    9
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Kieran Conroy
    Favourite Kieran Conroy
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 11:10 AM

    The only angry fools in 2017 were the un-democratic far left.Can’t accept President Trump.Can’t accept Brexit.A bunch of small minded village idiots.Toys out of the pram.Assh@les.

    30
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ted Murray
    Favourite Ted Murray
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 12:09 PM

    @Kieran Conroy: ___ Angry fools aren’t just far left, as you seem to be a far right angry fool.

    8
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Kieran Conroy
    Favourite Kieran Conroy
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 12:58 PM

    @Ted Murray: I’m actually left wing when it comes to things like workers rights etc.I’m leaning very much right when dealing with crime & punishment & Islamic terrorism.You see, people don’t have to be far left or far right.Some people find this concept difficult to understand.

    9
    See 3 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Misanthrope
    Favourite Misanthrope
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 1:48 PM

    @Kieran Conroy: likewise. The problem however is that left wing economic policies come prepackaged with liberal social policy/mass immigration.

    6
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Róisín Daly
    Favourite Róisín Daly
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 2:24 PM

    @Kieran Conroy: i can see why trump and brexit happened. Wishful thinking on the good old days BS. Where men were men and uppity people knew there place. Trump is in power to make himself and him mates Koch brothers and co etc rich end of and brexit was the idea that little Britain wants their empire back. Take their country back from the EU and then sell off the health service/ transportation bit by bit. Duh!

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Ted Murray
    Favourite Ted Murray
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 5:07 PM

    @Kieran Conroy: ___ It seems to me that you’re simply politically confused.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute gerry fallon
    Favourite gerry fallon
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 1:06 PM

    I am so angry being asked this question.
    Ooh,I could crush a grape I’m so angry.

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Alois Irlmaier
    Favourite Alois Irlmaier
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 8:07 PM

    @gerry fallon: Sex helps but not with Trump lol.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Misanthrope
    Favourite Misanthrope
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 1:43 PM

    There is a definite increase in manufactured anger in recent times. We all know the smug, indignant empty rage at the appropriate juncture…spew

    6
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Avina Laaf
    Favourite Avina Laaf
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 12:28 PM

    In the words of the Sex Pistols, “anger is an energy”….

    3
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Eliza Mac
    Favourite Eliza Mac
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 12:58 PM

    @Avina Laaf: That was Public Image Limited, not the Sex Pistols. Now I’m angry!

    5
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Fiona Fitzgerald
    Favourite Fiona Fitzgerald
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 1:22 PM

    @Avina Laaf: Or anger’s an overreaction to an artificially induced state of fear.

    1
    See 3 more replies ▾
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Avina Laaf
    Favourite Avina Laaf
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 1:45 PM

    @Eliza Mac:
    I knew I should have said Johnny Rotten instead of the Sex Pistols. I’m angry with myself now for angering you…..

    4
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Avina Laaf
    Favourite Avina Laaf
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 1:48 PM

    @Fiona Fitzgerald:
    So next time I get angry because it’s raining on my day off I’ll remind myself that it’s only an overreaction to an artificially induced state of fear…. Thanks for the tip.

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Alois Irlmaier
    Favourite Alois Irlmaier
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 8:45 PM

    @Avina Laaf: Anger takes away from motivation and creativity, replace anger with humour instead, it has greater lasting powers?

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Patabake Kennedy
    Favourite Patabake Kennedy
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 12:40 PM

    Yes but she has calmed down a bit now. Happy New Year.

    2
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute purple rain
    Favourite purple rain
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 12:35 PM

    lot of drama on TV too especially on the news with the terrorism etc. Apart from that it was grand.

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Alois Irlmaier
    Favourite Alois Irlmaier
    Report
    Jan 1st 2018, 8:06 PM

    Anger seems to be caused by a lack of control, desperation or from stupidity, those 3 seemed to sum up 2016 and 2017 as well. Why would 2018 be any different?

    1
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.

Leave a commentcancel

 
JournalTv
News in 60 seconds