Romesh says school placement system 'stressful'

Comedian Romesh Ranganathan has called for his local council to make its school placement process less stressful for parents.

Mr Ranganathan's appeal to get his youngest son into one of his preferred secondary schools was turned down by West Sussex County Council (WSCC).

The TV presenter said: "Parents are struggling to make ends meet, they've got all sorts of other stresses in their lives, this being more stressful than it needs to, in my opinion, is not acceptable."

WSCC said: "This year we were able to offer 87% of the 9,050 secondary school applicants a place at their first choice of school, while nearly 97% were offered a place at one of their three preferences."

In April, the comedian said he had emailed WSCC six times after his son had been placed in a school "on the other side of town", and not at the same school as his two older brothers.

Since talking about his concerns on social media, Mr Ranganathan said he had received messages from families who had been "messed around" by councils, "particularly" WSCC.

"What became clear from people getting in touch is that the system is letting people down and there's people whose kids have been allocated schools that are so far away they don't know how they're going to do the school run," he added.

The council said it understood the disappointment of parents who were not offered a place at a preferred school but explained that it was sometimes not possible "due to a number of factors relating to the selection criteria".

WSCC explained: "Applications are considered by our admissions team on their priority according to the relevant oversubscription criteria for their preferred schools, which may include proximity of the school to home and whether other siblings attend the same school."

Mr Ranganathan is calling on the council to look at the level of provision for children going into education.

He says the system "needs to get sorted out".

"We need to feel like the education of our children is something that is being cared about by the people that are in control of these things."

The comedian said trying to get your child into education was "one of the most stressful things".

The comedian says although he understands the system "can't be perfect for everybody", he says it can come across "very faceless and quite cold" for some parents.

He said: "It's one of the most important things you'll ever sort out, but from the other side it doesn't feel like that it's being treated with that level of reverence."

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