SCHOOLS seeking extra places to cope with increasing demand have until early January to apply.
In the last three years, the number of children transferring from primary to post primary has risen by more than 10 per cent.
This means hundreds have been left unplaced due to popular schools being oversubscribed - even though there are thousands of empty desks elsewhere.
The 2020 cohort is estimated to be 24,017, up slightly from last year and from 21,732 in 2017.
The Department of Education said it anticipated several areas may face significant pressure.
These include Belfast, Newtownards and north Down, Dungannon, south Derry, Antrim town and Newry.
The department has now written to schools explaining how they can apply for extra places.
It said post-primaries serving under-pressure areas have the option of submitting an application by 5pm on January 8 to be considered for a temporary increase to their Year 8 admissions for either one or two years.
"The department will publish the outcome of the Year 8 temporary increase exercise showing the number of temporary additional places and the successful schools," it wrote.
"It is intended that this will be published on the department's website by 31 January 2020. Successful and unsuccessful schools will be notified at the same time as the information is published.
"This exercise is not intended to provide every additional place that will be required and the Temporary Variation process will still be utilised across Northern Ireland to meet demand.
"This exercise is merely intended to create additional capacity in those areas where pressure is expected to be highest."
