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Saying he had met with school book publishers, he commented “I think we have started a process” and that there had been “some enquiries in the past but no action was taken by previous ministers”.
He has also met with the St Vincent de Paul.
The minister said he wanted to introduce a code of practice that would reduce editions of standard textbooks.
However, he said that “they can do much more” and that he hoped that schools would be able to buy books on a bulk basis at a wholesale price similar to what bookshops pay.
He is waiting for information back about best practice in book lending schemes in schools before he makes a blanket decision about them.
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The school book scheme would have a potential start-up cost, he said, but the cost to a parent of participating in it would “be far less than what the present system is for them”.
We have to take real charge of our own costs and those costs that we ourselves control, we have to act decisively with them.
These changes would take place in time for the next school year.
The minister also said he would incentivise schools to bring forward these schemes, but could not specify what these incentives would be.
With regard to the voluntary contribution to schools and whether it is voluntary, he told Morning Ireland that he had issued a discussion document on enrolment policy for all Irish schools.
“There is pressure on 20 per cent of schools that receive more applicants than they can accommodate,” he said
He said that schools would not be allowed to ask for large fees such as €500 upfront before pupils are told whether they are accepted into the school, under the discussion document.
“It is a voluntary scheme and they cannot be punished because they don’t have the money,” he added, calling the reliance on voluntary money “a victim of the celtic tiger’s demise”.
“We are in a very difficult place and the schools are dealing with that as much as anyone else,” he said, adding that schools “are not in some ivory tower unaware of what’s going on”.
“I’m highly realistic – we have to reduce our expenditure right across the board,” he concluded. “Expenses in education are driven by an increase in pupil numbers.”
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What’s going on with all these girls going missing, is it just a new trend of running away and putting there parents up the wall, hope she’s found safe and sound
Maybe the Journal is giving them exposure that other media outlets weren’t?
If so.. fair play. The more exposure, the better the chance of a happier outcome hopefully
This week alone the amount of missing people especially under 18 is horrifying.With the rise in mental health issues and suicide something needs to be done.If there was more highlighting in the media regarding missing people instead of 7 people bickering over their Presidential campaigns it would benefit an awful lot more.Would you mind paying €3 a poster if it was of your missing family member?Could they not alert people when they are in areas where someone may be missing.A few words,decription of person,what they were wearing,any distinguishing marks,tattoos,where they were last seen.How long would that take 5mins??If it was one of their family I really would like to know how they would personally deal with it?
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