Vol. 398 No. 2
7 Tomás Mac Giolla asked the Minister for Education if she will outline her Department's policy on the charging of enrolment, registration, or entry fees or on contributions requested by some schools; if she has issued any advice to schools on this matter; if she intends to take any steps to advise parents of their rights in relation to these charges; and if she will make a statement on the matter.
57 Mr. Bell asked the Minister for Education if she has any proposals to alleviate the high cost of heating, lighting, maintaining and insuring schools; and if she will make a statement on the matter.
71 Mr. Bell asked the Minister for Education if she considers it proper for teachers to be involved in fund raising activities for the provision of basic necessities in schools; and if she will make a statement on the matter.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 7, 57 and 71 together.
The day-to-day running costs of primary schools are discharged by making funds available by means of State grants and contributions from local sources. The State capitation grant is not intended to meet operating costs in full. Each board of management are responsible under the Rules for National Schools, for making arrangements for the collection of such funds locally, in supplement of the State grant, as will ensure that the school premises will be adequately heated and cleaned and kept in proper decorative condition.
A local contribution towards running costs, equivalent to at least 25 per cent of the State capitation grant, is lodged each year in a bank account in the name of the school. As is laid down in the handbook Boards of Management of National Schools — Constitution of Boards and Rules of Procedure:“the sum required to meet the local contribution shall be provided by the parish community or other appropriate analogous community or body and there shall be no levy on the parents of children attending the school”.
I am satisfied that boards of management, in general, are familiar with the above rules and bring no undue pressure to bear on individual parents with regard to the making of financial contributions. There can be no question of the payment of an enrolment or registration fee being made a condition of admission of a child to a primary school.
The rate of capitation grant was increased by 11 per cent in 1989 and by 6 per cent in 1990. The question of further increasing the grant will be considered when the 1991 Estimates are being prepared.
It is a fundamental principle of the free post-primary education scheme that no charge be made in respect of: (1) instruction in any subject of the Department's programme for secondary schools; (2) recreational or study facilities of which all the pupils are expected to avail as part of the school programme; and (3) any other activity in which all pupils are required to take part.
Voluntary contributions by parents or charges for optional extras over and above what is provided for in the general school programme are permissible under the free education scheme, provided it is made absolutely clear to parents that there is no question of compulsion to pay the voluntary contribution, and that there is no question of sanctions against pupils whose parents choose not to make such a contribution.
The Minister's reply amazes me because it appears that the Department are unaware or do not accept that they have a constitutional requirement under Article 42.4 of the Constitution which provides that the State shall provide free primary education. In the first official language, Irish, it is even stronger: "Ní foláir don Stát socrú a dhéanamh chun bunoideachas a bheith ar fáil in aisce,". Ní foláir — the State must, yet the Minister says it is not required to make the full contribution. Is she aware——
Let me appeal for brevity.
I am asking the Minister a question. Is she aware of a study done in Dublin which showed that the average cost per pupil in Dublin schools is £45.47p and from the Department of Education list of 1987-88 the contribution from the Department was £24 and from the Diocese — that is the local contribution — £6, making £30. In other words the State and local contributions were providing only two thirds of the cost of education. What steps will the Minister take to ensure that the Department provide the constitutional requirement of free primary education?
I have not got with me the study to which the Deputy refers. There have been so many studies of the funding but I am sure the Deputy is right in his information that there was such a study. That was 1987-88 and since that period there was in 1989 an 11 per cent increase and in 1990 a six per cent increase in the capitation grants.
Of £4.
I do not know about that study, but there is a special capitation grant way above that which is given to schools designated as disadvantaged, many of which lie in the Dublin Diocesan area. That grant is given for that purpose to the Dublin Diocesan Board.
Will the Minister check with the Department to see if they are fulfilling their constitutional requirement? As I understand it this is going to come up within the next year. Is she aware that if parents do not make the contribution they are asked for for various pieces of equipment for the school, they do not have a school of equal value with equal educational possibilities as those in the areas which make contributions of up to £120 a year per family? There is inequality of education by virtue of the fact that one area provides a far better school with far better equipment than other areas. Is this not correct?
It may well be that the Deputy is putting forward his view on the point with integrity, but a school is a building and in that building there are teachers who are a major resource of that school. Those teachers are the same from inner city Dublin to the back end of County Westmeath or County Cork.
The equipment——
A teacher trained in any school in the land——
The equipment——
——undergoes the same training and comes out the same as the other graduates from the one system. Those teachers are the major resource a school has. The equipment is another matter and it varies from school to school but the teachers are of the same calibre and in areas which are deemed to be disadvantaged or where the pupils are deemed to be disadvantaged we have, through a series of special grants and measures which I will be referring to in another reply, made contributions and will continue to so do increasingly from now on so that any perceived inequality will be eased.
I am sorry to say the time for dealing with priority questions is far exceeded.
With your permission, Sir, I wish to have Question No. 9 postponed until the next time priority questions are taken by the Minister for Education.
That will be taken into account.
The Deputy will not stop me talking any more than I will stop him.
Question No. 9 postponed.
