Photo: N Chadwick · CC BY-SA 2.0Irish-medium schools are unusually common around An Charraig: 50%, above Co. Donegal’s towns and Irish towns
Measured that way, An Charraig is above both Co. Donegal’s towns (7%) and Irish towns (8%). Its one secondary school within 3 km, Coláiste na Carraige, has 210 pupils. With no school results published in Ireland, and the Education Act 1998 restricting comparisons of them, these schools are described, not graded or ranked.
Schools in the town or within 3 km of its outline, Department of Education lists for 2025/26; the Ireland figures cover all schools listed.
What stands out about An Charraig’s schools
Extra support for many schools
Many schools here are in DEIS, which gives schools in disadvantaged areas more teachers, money and help; across Ireland, 30% of schools are. In DEIS: Coláiste na Carraige (210) and S N na Carraige (59). Who runs them ↓
From the Department of Education’s school lists: facts, not judgements of how well a school teaches.
Who runs An Charraig’s schools
Ethos as listed for 2025/26: each bar splits the schools by who runs them.
1 of An Charraig’s 2 schools have a Catholic ethos, against 80% across Ireland. The patrons with most schools here: Bishop of Raphoe (1) and Donegal ETB (1). 2 of the 2 are in DEIS, the extra support for schools in disadvantaged areas (30% across Ireland).
Department of Education school lists: ethos 2025/26, patron 2024/25 (the 2025/26 lists don’t give it). DEIS list 2025/26.
The 2 schools in and around An Charraig
Every school in An Charraig or within 3 km of its outline, each linked to its own page. No letters and no results: Ireland publishes none school by school.
Where the 2 schools in and around An Charraig are
Each school where the official list places it, shaded by who runs it and sized by pupils; squares are secondary schools, triangles special schools. The dashed shape is An Charraig’s outline; schools within 3 km of it count.
Places from the Department of Education’s school lists (its own coordinates for all but a handful); map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Teaching through Irish in and around An Charraig
The schools by teaching language, with Ireland’s share as the black tick.
1 of An Charraig’s 2 schools teach every subject through Irish, 1 of them in the Gaeltacht: S N na Carraige.
Who An Charraig’s schools serve
The pupils at the area’s schools by share, beside Co. Donegal’s and Ireland’s, 2025/26
Each bar is the area’s share; the tick marks Ireland’s.
DEIS by stage: pupils at DEIS schools
| Share of pupils | Around An Charraig | Co. Donegal | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils at DEIS schools | 100% | 62% | 27% |
| Pupils at all-Irish schools | 22% | 10% | 6% |
| Girls | 54% | 49% | 49% |
DEIS schools teach 100% of the pupils around An Charraig, a larger share than Ireland’s 27% (Co. Donegal: 62%). Where this area differs most from Ireland is pupils at all-Irish schools, at 22% against 6%. Coláiste na Carraige, with 210 pupils, is the largest school here in DEIS.
Each of the 2 schools
| School | Pupils | Girls | DEIS | All-Irish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| S N na CarraigePrimary | 59 | 49% | ✓ | ✓ |
| Coláiste na CarraigePost-primary · ETB | 210 | 55% | ✓ |
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary): enrolments by sex and the DEIS list. Shares are of pupils, not of schools; a county’s are the schools listed with its towns.
How children get a place in An Charraig
Starting primary school
Children can start primary school once they are four, and must be in school by six. Families apply to each school directly. Every school publishes an admission policy and a yearly admission notice; a school with more applicants than places admits on the criteria in its policy. Since the Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018, a Catholic or other majority-faith primary school can’t put baptised children first; a school of a minority faith still can, to keep its ethos.
Moving to secondary school
Children move to post-primary school at about twelve, after sixth class. Again, families apply to each school, usually a year or more ahead, and an oversubscribed school admits on its published criteria, often brothers and sisters and its feeder primary schools.
Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018; each school’s admission policy and notice are on its own website.
Which schools are growing
Of these 2 schools, 0 have grown by at least 5% since 2019/20 and 1 have lost as much; Ireland’s pupils changed by +5%.
Department of Education enrolments at 30 September, 2019/20 and 2025/26 (preliminary). No capacity is published, so how full a school is can’t be shown.
Inspection reports for An Charraig’s schools
Reports from the Department of Education’s Inspectorate, every school’s linked and none rated
Reports come from whole-school evaluations (teaching, learning, leadership and management), subject inspections and follow-through visits that check earlier advice; gov.ie publishes each one with the school’s response.
Reports say what inspectors found and what should improve, without an overall grade, so none appears here; each of the 2 schools below links its own.
| School | Reports on gov.ie |
|---|---|
| S N na CarraigePrimary | Inspection reports ↗ |
| Coláiste na CarraigePost-primary · ETB | Inspection reports ↗ |
Department of Education Inspectorate reports on gov.ie, found by each school’s roll number.
Post-primary schools within reach of An Charraig
All post-primaries within 10 km; at about twelve, families choose and apply school by school
The only post-primary school within 10 km of An Charraig is Coláiste na Carraige, an ETB school. It takes girls and boys. None within 10 km teaches every subject through Irish.
| School | Takes | Also | Pupils | Away |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coláiste na CarraigeETB · Multi-denominational | Girls and boys | DEIS | 210 | 0.7 km |
Department of Education post-primary list 2025/26; straight-line distances from the town’s centre point.
An Charraig beside the 224 other Irish towns of 200 to 400 people
Schools in or within 3 km of each town, by population; none is ranked, as Ireland publishes no results
| Town | People | Schools | Pupils | All-Irish | DEIS schools | Nearest post-primary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Crossbarry | 399 | 2 | 184 | 0 | 0% | 8.4 km |
| … | ||||||
| Ballinaclash | 309 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 3.5 km |
| Anagaire | 309 | 3 | 177 | 3 | 100% | 8.1 km |
| Clonygowan | 308 | 1 | 124 | 0 | 0% | 5.8 km |
| Piercetown | 308 | 2 | 468 | 0 | 0% | 4 km |
| An Charraig | 308 | 2 | 269 | 1 | 100% | 0.7 km |
| Aglish | 306 | 2 | 99 | 0 | 0% | 11 km |
| Rockcorry | 302 | 2 | 110 | 0 | 50% | 6.4 km |
| Silvermines | 301 | 1 | 57 | 0 | 0% | 8.3 km |
| Gneevgullia | 300 | 1 | 131 | 0 | 0% | 4.8 km |
| … | ||||||
| Lahardane | 200 | 1 | 76 | 0 | 0% | 7.1 km |
Of these 224 other towns, 42 count more pupils at their schools than An Charraig. An all-Irish school is within 3 km of 17 of the 225.
Department of Education school lists 2025/26 (preliminary); CSO Census 2022 populations.
Pupil numbers around An Charraig
Each September’s pupils at every school in or within 3 km of the town, counted where the school stands today.
The schools in and around An Charraig had 328 pupils in 2015/16 and 269 in 2025/26, fewer than before.
Pupils at schools in and around An Charraig
Department of Education enrolments at 30 September each year, 2015/16 to 2025/26 (preliminary), for every school placed in the area today; schools that have since closed or merged count where they stood.
Schools in the towns around An Charraig
Schools in or within 3 km of each neighbouring town; distances in a straight line.
| Town | Schools | Pupils | All-Irish | DEIS schools | Nearest post-primary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| An Charraig | 2 | 269 | 1 | 100% | 0.7 km |
| Killybegs 13 km | 5 | 697 | 0 | 80% | 0.5 km |
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Which schools count. Every school in An Charraig or within 3 km of its outline, as the Department places it: families here use them. Schools further out are on the map of each school’s own page.
- The kinds of school. Primary schools take children from junior infants to sixth class, about ages 4 to 12. Post-primary schools teach the Junior and Leaving Certificate, about ages 12 to 18: voluntary secondary schools (mostly with a religious patron), ETB schools and community colleges run by an Education and Training Board, and community and comprehensive schools. Special schools teach children with particular needs.
- Teaching through Irish. All-Irish: every subject taught through Irish, in the Gaeltacht or, outside it, a Gaelscoil or Gaelcholáiste. Partly in Irish: an Irish stream (some classes entirely through Irish) or some subjects through Irish. Every other school teaches Irish as a subject.
- DEIS. DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools) gives schools serving disadvantaged areas more teachers, money and support; the Department decides which schools are in it.
- Ethos and patron. Most Irish schools are owned by a patron, mostly a church; the patron sets the school’s ethos. Multi-denominational schools (Educate Together, many ETB schools) teach children of every faith and none together.
- No grade. Section 53 of the Education Act 1998 lets the Minister refuse to release information that would allow schools’ exam results to be compared, and no results are published school by school. So Ireland’s schools have no letters and its towns no School Grade; nothing on this page ranks them.
- What isn’t here. What the UK and French pages show from results, these can’t: results charts, results against pupils’ backgrounds and towns ranked by their schools (no published results), and how full each school is (no capacity is published). Every post-primary school teaches to the Leaving Certificate, so there is no sixth-form split to show.
- Inspections. The Inspectorate’s reports are linked from each school’s page. They give no overall grade, so none is shown.
- The year. The 2025/26 lists are the Department’s preliminary release; numbers can change a little in the final lists.
Questions about schools in An Charraig
How many schools are there in An Charraig?
In An Charraig or within 3 km of it: 1 primary school and 1 secondary school, with 269 pupils between them.
Are there schools in An Charraig that teach through Irish?
Yes, 1: S N na Carraige teach every subject through Irish.
Are there fee-paying secondary schools near An Charraig?
No: the secondary school here is free.
What is the best school in An Charraig?
We don’t say. Ireland publishes no exam results school by school, and section 53 of the Education Act 1998 restricts comparing them; a ranking would rest on guesses. Each school’s page has its own facts and a link to its inspection reports, and visiting the schools you are weighing is still the best guide.
How do I get a place at a school in An Charraig?
Apply to each school directly: every school publishes an admission policy and a yearly admission notice with its dates. If it has more applicants than places, it admits on the criteria in its policy.
Sources: Department of Education, school lists 2025/26 (preliminary) and enrolments since 2015/16, CC BY 4.0 · one school placed with OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL). Under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0).
Contains Central Statistics Office (CSO) data, Census 2022, and Tailte Éireann boundaries (CSO Urban Areas, Small Areas, local electoral areas, constituencies), under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0).