Comedian Romesh Ranganathan has criticised his local council over a school placement “shambles” after claiming his youngest son was not offered any of his preferences for secondary school.
The 47-year old posted a video on Instagram on Saturday criticising West Sussex County Council for placing his youngest son in a school “on the other side of town”, rather than the one that his elder son attends.
Ranganathan also added that he had emailed the council six times with no response, and after a local MP got involved was told that an investigation by the council found the placement to be “satisfactory”.
In the social media post, he said: “Has anyone else or is anyone else dealing with this absolute secondary school placement shambles?”
Speaking in the video he added: “Turns out West Sussex, they no longer give a s*** if your siblings go to a certain school.
“The school that we put down was the same as his brother’s. They’ve said: ‘You’re not having that. Not only not having that, you’re not having any of the schools you put down as a preference. In fact, we’ve placed you a school the other side of town.'”
He continued by sharing that he had emailed the council six times and had not received a reply.
He added: “One of the emails I was begging, just going: ‘Please, please. We don’t know what we’re going to do about our son’s schooling next year.’
“I end up going via my local MP. I said: ‘Can you just help me with this?’ He says: ‘Leave it with me.’ I wait two weeks. They come back and says: ‘West Sussex looked into it, they can’t do anything. They have conducted an investigation of their placement procedure, and they found it to be satisfactory.’
“I bet they have. Then he said to me: ‘I’m sure it’s disappointing.’ It’s more than disappointing. It’s not the football, it’s my son’s school placement.”
A spokesperson for West Sussex County Council said: “We don’t comment on individual matters, but we acknowledge the disappointment when students cannot be placed at their first choice. We will always work with families to ensure a suitable school placement can be found.”
The comedian hosts a BBC Radio 2 programme on Saturday mornings and the gameshow A League Of Their Own.
He also previously fronted four series of The Misadventures Of Romesh Ranganathan – which won a Bafta TV award in 2020.
