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OVER A QUARTER of secondary school parents said they were very concerned that they would not be able to meet back to school costs this year, according to a new survey.
The annual Back to School Survey from children’s charity Barnardos also found that just under a quarter (24%) of secondary school parents surveyed said they had to take out a loan or borrow from friends in order to meet back to school costs.
A total of 1,100 parents were surveyed in relation to the cost of sending a child to primary or secondary school education.
Barnardos calculated that the average cost the basics needed for for a fourth class pupil is €320, while the amount needed for a first year pupil is €972 and a fifth year pupil is €863.
One parent of a primary school pupil told Barnardos that they “lie awake in bed with anxiety thinking how will we meet the uniform needs along with the grocery bill”.
“It is a very difficult and such a stressful time… We both work and we have eaten through our savings since January due to the rise in the cost of living for everything,” the parent said.
It’s a very worrying time in our lives with another child joining primary school in 2024 and wondering how will we cope.
Other survey results include:
Commenting on the results of the survey, Barnardos CEO Suzanne Connolly called on the government to introduce free schoolbooks to all secondary school children. This comes after school books were made free for primary school children last year.
“Barnardos believes that no parent should face financial pressure in trying to meet what are essential costs for their children’s education. Parents repeatedly tell us of the need for the government to do more to reduce the struggles they face each summer,” Connolly said.
Barnardos is calling on the government to take further steps in providing free education by introducing free schoolbooks for all, ensuring all schools allow for low-cost uniforms, ending voluntary contributions and maintaining the recent increase in the back to school clothing and footwear allowance.
Why do schools still rely on parents to pay for essentials? The Noteworthy team wants to find out. Support this project here.
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What i don’t understand is the schools that have gone all digital, but you still have to buy the physical books in order to get the E codes to download onto laptops/tablets. Books are then left sitting in bedrooms, never to be used, and can’t be passed on because codes are used. Basically you spend 3 to 4 hundred for books to be put in bins why can’t there be some way to just buy or rent Ecodes. I know so many people with brand new books gathering dust and no good to anyone because Ecode has been used. Crazy
@Susan Obrien: never had this. Paid a fee in 1st year and rhat was it. No buying books. Everything was on the tablet
Wait until they try sending their children off to college….
@Darren McCarthy: Try is the crucial word on that sentence. It will be out of reach for most in 10 years. By that time apprenticeships will hopefully give students a better learning and cost-effective experience.
Why can’t they issue basic colour uniform requirements, a patch for the crest and give them laminated handouts for their education to be returned when finished. They don’t all need books, it is pure waste and costly!
@Emmet Murphy: Why can’t they just scrap uniforms?
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: just have generic uniforms that you can buy in aldi or pennys. I paid 70 for a pair of school trousers for my daughter in the “special shop”. Its madness.
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: that would actually make it worse as kids would compete with regards name brands etc and also kids would want a different outfit everyday. Uniforms can help make everyone equal but they need to be more generic. My kids national school didn’t have a crest so unforms were easy and cheap to get. My son is starting secondary school and his PE uniform alone was €115 which he’ll only be wearing once a week.
@Helen McKernan: Better again, it’s a money maker for book and clothes shops. While parents get fleeced. If the parents got together and organised sending their kids in these uniforms and demanding a change? You’d get a result, civil disobedience works when organised properly.
@Caroline Reid: Does that competition happen during the holidays? Do these teenagers change their clothes in June, July and August? Or does all of this only cause stress during term time?
@Emmet Murphy: The basic colour of uniform requirement is way, way way way worse than a uniform or no uniform, and I can guarantee you does not look like a uniform, but not really like there is no uniform either.
It looks like students, with different trousers, of different brands, some jeans, some the more normal texture of school trousers, all with different shades of blue, all with different textures, different lines and different patterns, it results in students having shirts, but (let’s say the colour is white or blue) (Rest of the comment below)
@Alpain Snow: with different shades of white, or different shades of blue, with different buttons, different colors, some long sleeved, some short sleeved, some have a brand logo on them, some do not, some have no pockets, some have one, and some have two, then with the jumpers, (let’s say the coloir is navy), there will be different shades of navy, some of them will have strings to pull, some of them will have hoods, some of them will have brand logos on them, lots of them will have different textures, and different patterns, like some ill have wavy lines, some will ave straight lines, some will uave none, some will have a mix…
It will not look like a uniform, it will look like a mess. I speak from personal experience going to a school with a “uniform” like that.
@Alpain Snow: It was a wonderful school though, with particularly excellent and awesome teachers.
@Alpain Snow: It’s not a fashion show, it’s school and basic colour requirement of different items of clothing will suffice. Jumpers/blue, pants/grey and shoes/black for example with the crest on jumper. If I were the parents, I’d get organised and send the kids to school with no uniforms or books in an act of civil disobedience until something was done!
@Oliver Cleary: Construction Apprenticeships are grand in your twenties, especially if your prepared to work hard abroad for big companies, you’ll make big money young but I’ve found that come thirty plus they don’t offer further progression really into office based roles. Only electrical gives you loads of options. You basically have to start again and add something you don’t have a bit of an interest in like facilities, building management or health and safety just to get into a foreman supervisor office role which is wrong. Design mechanical and electrical apprenticeships from scratch and have levels incorporated into them just like academic pathways.
@Dan The Man: most people have multiple careers these days – work hard & pay attention
@Temp Stuff: nonsense. Most people don’t have multiple careers
@brian madden: stats would say they do now, the millennial mindset.
@NotMyIreland: multiple jobs/employers does not equates to multiple careers.
@Ciaran Foster: Yeah jobs in different sectors do, which is what millennials are doing. My niece has had 3 by her mid thirties as have many of her peers.
Education should be free. Free books, free uniforms, free transport, totally free. But……..
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: Yes it should be. Also schools shouldn’t be allowed to harass parents about the “voluntary” contribution.
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: Yes it should be free and childrens allowance should be cut to provide the funding for this, that way the money is actually going to children (or at least the ones that go to school).
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: There is a massive problem with the way the present system is structured. Automatic Progression. What hapoens a student who fails JC Maths?? Yippee, they go on and do LC Maths!! And that makes no sense. Absolutely none. And it is a massive waste of resources, money and teaching hpurs. Solutions on a postcard, please, to the Minister for Skills, Education & Science.
@The next small thing: And how is the money not going to children now?. Don’t know about you but it costs my wife and I a lot more than €140 per month to look after our child. So clearly children does go to the child in some form.
@Roy Dowling: the vast majority of parents would be like yourself however there are also a minority of parents that a) don’t spend on their children and the child is going to school hungry etc,or b) they don’t send their children to school and let them run riot around their community.
We see the same issue each year and nothing improves/changes. Uniforms are up to each school so they should provide the option of a generic uniform with a crest provided by the school. The Dept. of Education needs to ensure books can either be rented or passed on to other kids (no more yearly new editions).
Still money for Taylor Swift tickets and an over night stay in Dublin. And the airport is jammed for the past two month with people going on holidays
The comments on this article illustrate how heartless so many people here are.
No wonder FFG has a permanent grip on power.
Hopefully parents won’t pay the “registration” fee or the money for the school journal.
@Dave Barrett: oh yes what a rebellion….
Why is there only one provider of these school laptops and how did they get the contract? they have total monopoly with no competition.
You know August is here when they start on about the back-to-school costs.
Nothing about it in July when they’re all on their hols!
People have to prioritise spending for this and not go on a whingefest when the spectre of back to school appears.
There is no such thing as a free lunch, and there never has been.
Is it imperative that parents examine the nature of the content that will be incorporated into these taxpayer-funded “Free” books?
Scrap the school uniform. People say that this will make things worse, but there is a lot of countries that don’t bother with them.
@johnabc: i think uniform makes it handy in the mornings for busy parents & sleepy kids who can just throw it on but what they do need to scrap is the “can to only buy here uniforms”. They need to go with generic colours & uniforms that can be bought in any shop be it aldi, dunnes or m&s.
Upsi
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