According to the school’s website, Alexandra College was founded in 1866 to give a “new sense of purpose to the education of young middle-class ladies in Ireland”. 

Students from the high-status school were the first women to enrol at Trinity College when the university opened its doors to female students in 1903.

Fees for day students at Alexandra are €6,100 for the current academic year, while boarding students pay €16,220. In addition, the school has written to the parents of its 620 students, requesting that they contribute another €250 a month to help fund a building project.

However, as the recession deepens, more and more parents with children in fee-paying schools are struggling to keep up with payments.

Last month, a Junior Certificate boarding student at Alexandra College, whose parents had not paid the fee, was escorted from her class in front of her peers by a member of the school management team. The principal of the school was absent due to illness at the time of the incident.

Classmates staged a sit-in in protest and the Year Head negotiated a stay for the girl until the end of the week to enable her to complete an art project that formed part of her Junior Certificate examination. She will also be permitted to return to the school to sit her Junior Cert examinations.

Dublin Lord Mayor Eibhlin Byrne said her daughter attended the school and that she was appalled at the way the student had been treated. This was not in keeping with what she understood to be the ethos of Alexandra, she said, and she is waiting for an opportunity to discuss the incident with the principal.

Labour TD Ruarí Quinn said the school had the option of taking legal action against the parents if there were unpaid fees. “Instead, the school opted to penalise a child only weeks before her Junior Cert exam.”

Labour Senator Ivana Bacik, a former pupil, said the student should be reinstated.

The decision to remove the student was taken by the school’s finance committee which reports to the board of management and the school governing council. The ex officio chair of the school council, Most Rev John Neill, Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, had no involvement in the decision.

A statement issued by MKC Communications on behalf of the school explains:

“Because of the need for confidentiality with regard to matters that should properly remain between the college and the parents/guardians of pupils, there is a limit to the clarification we can offer now in relation to this particular case.

“However, in all cases concerning outstanding fees, including this one, the college attempts to reach an amicable solution and expends considerable time and effort in working with parents to achieve a desirable outcome with the needs of the pupil always being of prime importance.

“In this particular case we can confirm that the Junior Certificate syllabus was substantially completed by Easter and that the pupil will be able to sit her exams at the college, and that this was made clear at all times.” (Sources: Sunday Times, Irish Times)