Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
‘I fear my only child won’t get place at her chosen school’
A MUM who lost her baby son to cancer says schools must create fair admissions criteria so her daughter is not penalised for being an only child.
Oana Chirila, 42, from Carrickfergus, Co Antrim, fears Emma could be one of the children to fall foul of the new rules to be introduced by schools.
The manager at a supported living facility in Lisburn said: “Emma is a very bright girl who was expected to perform well in her transfer test. She wants to go to Belfast High School but now without the transfer test we have no idea if she’ll get a place there.
“We have no criteria to follow yet but looking at other schools we can see that being an only child and coming from a family who immigrated to Northern Ireland and, as such, with no history at the school, it leaves her very vulnerable.”
Emma’s dad Alex Papaconstantinou, who is Greek, moved to Northern Ireland 20 years ago and Oana, who is Romanian, has worked and lived here since 2006.
They are both employed and Emma does not qualify for free school meals so without a sibling or family heritage at her chosen school, she may find herself at a great disadvantage finding her way on to the admissions list.
On January 13, AQE cancelled their transfer test due to be sat on February 27 after a stop-start decision making process that created anxiety amongst many of the 9,000 children who had registered to sit the exam.
Education Minister Peter Weir then ordered schools to finalise their admissions criteria by January 22 so that they can be published by the Education Authority on February 2.
Many have called for pupils’ registration for the test to be a lead
SUPPORT Oana Chirila and daughter Emma live in Carrick criteria for admission to their chosen grammar school.
However, a number of schools have already listed attendance of their prep departments as their lead criteria.
Oana said: “The entire situation is a mess. Emma has just kept working and she’s a smart and resilient girl.
“She is dedicated to her education and she’ll always work hard. My concern is that she goes to a school where bullying is not a problem, where she feels she will be happy and thrive.
“But to have to tell her that her chances may be reduced because her little brother Georgie died has been heartbreaking. She was just five when he was born and she loved him each of the 165 days that he was with us.
“He is in our hearts day and night and we miss him very much. To think that his loss could potentially affect the school Emma gets a place in, potentially affect her life chances, is just awful.
“My heart is broken by the whole thing.”
Little Georgie was just three months when he was diagnosed with cancer and the disease rounded on him so viciously that he had little, then no chance.
On July 5, 2014 having been diagnosed with acute megakaryoblastic leukaemia, a subtype of acute myeloid leukaemia, his fight was over and Oana, Alex and Emma had to learn how to live without him.
Oana said: “We live with that pain every day and we have worked hard so we can live with it. We try to find the good in every day, remember the times, recall those moments we all had together.
“Having immigrated to Northern Ireland with no family already here, we know Emma will be at a disadvantage if the school she wants is looking for family connections. But to add the fact she is an only child into the mix would be a tragedy on top of a tragedy.”