Vol. 433 No. 7
154 Mr. Gilmore asked the Minister for Education the steps, if any, being taken by her Department to ease the financial burden on parents of children going to or returning to schools in September; the amount per capita of grants available under the free books scheme at primary and post-primary level; and if schools have been given advice about how uniform and other charges can be reduced.
In present economic circumstances, I am anxious that the cost to parents of the education of their children should be kept to a minimum.
I was pleased to have been able to increase the 1993 allocation for free books for necessitous pupils by more than 8 per cent over that of 1992 in the case of post-primary schools and by 14 per cent in the case of primary schools.
In second-level schools the amount of grant payable to any school for this purpose is related to the number of necessitous pupils on roll and is not distributed on the basis of a set amount per pupil. Principal teachers have discretion in the extent of assistance to be given to each necessitous pupil, subject to the overall amount of money made available to them.
At primary level the rates of grant for 1993 are of the order of £10 for needy pupils in classes I-VI and £5.50 per pupil in infant classes.
In conjunction with this scheme my Department has issued guidelines to school management authorities to assist in the implementation of loan-rental schemes, in co-operation with parents, which would ensure the efficient use of school books and minimise the cost to parents. School authorities have also been advised that selected text books should be changed only to the extent that is absolutely necessary.
