Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
ALTHOUGH SCHOOL COSTS have been mounting up, one third of all secondary schools across Ireland don’t have a book rental scheme.
The figures have come to light this week and led to calls for the scheme to be picked up by more schools.
A recent survey from the Irish League of Credit Unions recently found that the average cost of sending a child back to school is over €1,185.
Sinn Féin Spokesperson on Education and Skills Teachta Carol Nolan, who released the figures after receiving them on foot of a parliamentary question, has called on the Minister for Education Richard Bruton to address the cost of school books in this year’s budget.
Deputy Nolan Nolan said:
We have seen from recent surveys carried out by Barnardos and the Irish League of Credit Unions that the cost of school books remains one of the significant costs of sending children back to school.
Figures released by the Department of Education show clearly that there is an uneven spread of school book rental schemes in secondary schools across the state.
She pointed out that in Dublin, 37% of secondary schools operate a book rental scheme while 100% of secondary schools in Leitrim do so.
Sinn Féin has called for an increase of 30% in the School Books Grant at an approximate cost of €5 million in order to make affordable school books more accessible to students.
Facts and figures
In an answer to Deputy Nolan’s parliamentary question, Education Minister Richard Bruton said that his department provides funding to schools to support the operation of school book rental schemes.
The most recent figures available at primary level indicate that 95% of primary schools operate a book rental scheme.The most recent figures available at second level indicate that 65% of second level schools operate book rental schemes.
He attached a breakdown of the schools which operate the scheme.
They show that:
In a statement to TheJournal.ie, the Department of Education said its approach “is to support and encourage all schools to have book rental schemes”.
There is a School Books Grant Scheme in place that provides assistance for books for students and to support book rental schemes in all recognised primary and post-primary schools within the Free Education Scheme.
Under this scheme, the Department has provided over €25 million to post-primary schools in the last 3 years. The arrangements in relation to this scheme are set out in Circular 0046/2013 which is published on the Department’s website.
The department launched guidelines for developing textbook rental schemes in schools in 2013, which provide practical advice to primary and post-primary schools on how rental schemes can be established and operated.
“The aim of the guidelines is to help as many schools as possible to start such book rental programmes,” said the department, which also published a special Guide for Parents.
It added that the Government has just launched the first Action Plan for Education, “aimed at making the Irish education and training service the best in Europe by 2026″.
It noted that a number of the actions aim to strengthen the focus on reducing school costs for parents.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
If I hear anyone else say “life style choice” in relation to social welfare, I swear to God I wont be responsible!!!
The other thing that I m tired of hearing is “we need to reduce social welfare to motivate people to go back to work” Our TDs receive over €2500 pay per week, plus expenses, free transport etc and they are spending their time on how to cut child welfare by €10 and the dole by €8. Those who profit most from Irelands wealth are mostly tax exiles and pay nothing at all …is something wrong here?? Should we not be “motivating” those who earn €1 million plus to be paying their fair share?
I “live” on Social Welfare. Yes you could say it is a “lifestyle choice”. I have cardiac artery disease, diabetes and arthritis, and am on Disability Allowance. I get the same amount to exist on as someone trying to find a job. It is not a lot. In fact it is not enough. Do our T.D.s know or care? I think not. Would they do anything if they did know?
NO! Because they are not concerned about how ordinary people get by.
Oh Sugar !!
this country has thee most disconected politicians in relation to real life and how we cope and live with the decisions they make.
living on social welfare is a great lifestyle choice, i do it all the time :-P
It is an absolute disgrace what happened to Fr Kevin Reynolds and I am happy for him that his name was cleared. Why the hell won’t Dev jnr respect this mans wishes and those of Fr. Reynolds legal team?
Before cutting social welfare for single mothers, can we please first have a National plan to provide community childcare to every family? Community Childcare workers do a great job but when they have to be closed during school holidays, what’s the point?
Believe it or not, not every child in this country has a granny who can take over during school holidays.
Am I the only person who thinks the defamation by autocomplete thing is stupid? It would be like punishing a news reporter for reporting the news. It happened and people were looking up the recievership online to find out information about it so google took a popular term being used and suggested it as a search item. Google simpley did what it’s supposed to do, help people find information online in a quick manner by streamlining what is relevent to what people wanted at that time.
If the term “receivership” is now considered pejorative then google in Ireland had better beware, as the number of businesses in that situation is more likely to grow than shrink.
have your say