A Profile of East Cork Population Demographics and Other Rationale
The crisis in East Cork regarding secondary school places has reached critical mass. In response to this critical situation, East Cork Educate Together Secondary School (ECETSS) was set up by concerned parents and community members to highlight and take action on this educational and societal issue.
For many years there has been a clear shortage of places at secondary school level. The population in East Cork is growing rapidly and accounts of children without a secondary school place until well into the school year are all too common. Some do not find places at all. Other students are forced to take up places in Cork city schools and begin their day at 5:30am. Even though certain school buildings have been extended and additional classes added, all are now full occupancy. Even secondary school buildings in progress will be at maximum occupancy at their time of opening. The system has been at breaking point for a long time…it is now well and truly broken.
Our strategy has been to commission a report to factually demonstrate the trends underlying this crisis. You will find a link to the completed report at the end of this post. The report analyses population and other relevant trends using data from the CSO, Department of Education and Skills, and local development information.
The rate of year-on-year population growth is much higher in East Cork than the national average. It is forecast to increase further.