The enrolment of a female student to the all-boys Nagle Community College in Mahon this week on the instructions of the Department of Education is likely to see schools around the country urgently rewording their enrolment policies.

The Department instructed the school to admit the girl to the all-male school overruling the school's board in the process because there was not an adequate choice of school in the area for the girl who has learning difficulties.

According to the girl's mother, the nearest girl's school is a 35-minute walk from their home and not directly accessible by bus from their home. Nagle Community College has been an all-boys school since it opened in 1981 but critically, its enrolment policy does not specifically state it is a boys-only school. Other schools around the country are now being urged to make sure that their enrolment policies are clear and unambiguous.

Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland programme, Michael Moriarty, General Secretary of the Irish Vocational Education Association said that all schools should now ensure they were clear in their enrolment policies. He added that the most important consideration was to maintain a choice of school types for parents and children be they single or mixed sex, multi-denominational or schools with a strong religious ethos.

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