Sir, – Your overview on the issues relating to the proposed new status of history within the junior cycle framework (“Give me a crash course in Junior Cert history” (October 5th) stated that “vocational schools” account for “48 per cent of all secondary schools”.
The Department of Education and Skills categorises the totality of “second-level” schools under three headings in its annual statistical reports: secondary, vocational, “community and comprehensive”.
The latter are stand-alone schools, not under the authority of the Education and Training Board (ETB) system, and are directly funded by the department.
In total, a total of 96 community or comprehensive schools provided education for 60,000 students during the last school year. – Yours, etc,
PATRICK CALLAN,
Portmarnock,
Co Dublin.