604 WELB nurserykids turned away byfirst choice schools

OVER six hundred children didn’t get a place at their parents’ first choice nurseries in the Western Education and Library Board (WELB) this year, Education Minister John O’Dowd has revealed.

By Kevin Mullan

Published 3rd Aug 2013, 10:23 BST

604 WELB kids were turned down from first choice nurseries.

Of 3,022 children turned down across Northern Ireland, 604 rejections were in WELB. The figure refers to statutory nursery places. Forty nine were refused voluntary or private first preferences.

The figure for Londonderry was 282. In Limavady it was 68. And in Strabane it was 76.

Mr O’Dowd said: “The pre-school admissions process is preference based. Therefore those children not offered a place by their 1st preference setting may be offered a place in another setting listed by their parents as a preference on their application.”

He added: “At the end of the 2013/14 pre-school admissions process, 99.9 per cent of target aged children, whose parents fully engaged with the process, were offered a funded place in a pre-school setting.”