Pre-school woes

I’m not the most organised of people when it comes to domestic matters. I leave things until the last minute on a regular basis. When it comes to deadlines, it seems I work best under pressure. There was one thing, however, that I didn’t slack on and that was enrolling the kids to an Irish language pre-school. I grew up on a Gaeltacht island in Donegal and Irish is my first language, so I want the kids to have the same grá for Gaeilge as I do. I try my best to speak to them in Irish at home and my husband, who’s not a native speaker, is also brushing up on his cúpla focal so that the kids can learn it. 

One of the first things I did when I moved here from Dublin was enrol my two children at the pre-school. George was only 9 months old at the time and he was due to start this coming September. I found out on Friday, however, that there is actually no room for him now. Despite the fact that his name has been on the list for years, and despite the fact that his older sister went there, the school is now prioritising children who want to send their kids there for two years now that the ECCE scheme has been extended. I’ve contacted other pre-schools in the area and they’ve all been full so far. I’m not quite sure what’s going to happen.

I’m not alone, it seems. An extra 60,000 kids are in need of childcare spaces after the regulations changed to introduce a second free pre-school year from September. Apparently pre-schools are struggling to keep up with the demand and many schools are changing their enrolment policy last minute. The introduction of an extra pre-school year was such great news when it came in the Budget last year, but now that it is being implemented come September, it seems that it’s people like George who are going to be impacted negatively. In a small town such as Clonakitly, there are only so many options available and it seems that at this late stage there is no room at the inn for him. I’ve no doubt that I’m not the only parent in Ireland scrambling at this stage to try and figure out what will work out  best for my child. I’m certainly not going to be forced into sending him to primary school a year earlier than planned. Maybe I could home school him and the government could pay me what they’d be paying a pre-school? Fat chance. And I’d make a horrible teacher. This whole saga reminds me of the free medical care for under 5s. It was a great idea until loads of GPs decided not to sign up for it. And I’ve heard loads of people complaining that they can never get a timely appointment anymore. For once it’d be nice if the Government put a bit of thought into their policies before rushing in.