A MAJORITY of children will start nursery education this autumn in their first choice school.
Parents who applied for a funded pre-school place for their child have found out if they have been successful in the first stage of the process.
The Education Authority (EA) said almost 97 per cent had been successful at this stage, with close to 88 per cent offered their first preference.
It means about 750 children out of 22,868 who applied are still looking.
Places are available at hundreds of nursery schools, nursery units in primary schools, voluntary and private playgroups and day nurseries.
Some parents are likely to withdraw from the process, however, as all nearby schools will be filled.
Many popular schools remain heavily oversubscribed. While some parents will be left disappointed, they have no legal right to a nursery place for their children.
Where a school is oversubscribed, priority is given to "children from socially disadvantaged circumstances" - those whose parents are in receipt of income support, or Jobseeker's allowance.
This criterion was not a problem issue until applications for pre-school began to spiral about 10 years ago. Some parents expressed anger that it was the families that could stay at home whose children were first in the queue.
The Department of Education subsequently provided extra funding to meet the growth in demand for pre-school places.
The numbers missing out this year after the first stage are significantly lower than the 1,500 figure reached in 2012 and the 1,000-plus in the following two years.
Meanwhile, the primary admissions process also ended this week and a total of 23,571 (99.47 per cent) of children were placed with 97.19 per cent being offered a place at first preference.
"Parents who were unsuccessful in obtaining a pre-school place at the end of stage one or a primary one place for their child have received notification from the Education Authority advising that they can nominate further preferences," an EA spokesman said.
"A list of providers/schools that may have places available can be found on the EA website at www.eani.org.uk/admissions, along with information for parents on the next stage of the application process."
