Vol. 565 No. 2
62 Mr. Broughan asked the Minister for Education and Science if it is intended to increase the capitation grants for primary and secondary schools, in view of the serious financial problems being faced by many schools; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10186/03]
Significant improvements in the levels of direct funding to schools have been made in recent years. The standard rate of capitation grant for primary schools was substantially increased from €57.14 per pupil in 1997 to €105.00 per pupil in 2001-02 and to €111.58 in respect of the 2002-03 school year.
Significant improvements have also been made in the level of funding to secondary schools. The standard per capita grant from €224.74 that applied in 1997, was increased to €256.49 in September 2001, and was further increased to €266.49 in September 2002. An additional per capita grant of €38.09 is paid to disadvantaged schools bringing the total per capita grant in the case of such schools to over €300.
In addition, under the school services support initiative, secondary schools have benefited from further significant increases in the support grant from €25.40 per pupil in 2000 to €88.88 from September 2002 and to €99 per pupil from 1 January 2003.
Funding for voluntary secondary schools has been further enhanced by the introduction of a range of equalisation measures that are designed to reduce the historic anomalies in the funding arrangements for the different school types at second level. Under the terms of recent equalisation measures, the support services grant was increased by €28 per pupil with effect from September 2002. This brings the support services grant in the case of voluntary secondary schools to €116.88 per pupil from September 2002 and to €127 per pupil from 1 January 2003. This increase is in addition to the range of equalisation grants of up to €15,554 per school, €44.44 per pupil, per annum that was approved for secondary schools in December 2001.
For a voluntary secondary school with 500 pupils, this amounts to extra funding of up to €100,000 per annum, and annual grants of up to €236,761, €255,811 in the case of disadvantaged schools, towards general expenses and support services.
