Dan Boyle
Question:176 Mr. Boyle asked the Minister for Education and Science if he will provide partial funding to allow for a website for a school book exchange to operate on a national, local or regional basis. [15831/03]
Written Answers. - Grant Payments.
I have no plans to provide funding for the development of a website for school book exchanges. Apart from a small number of prescribed texts at second level, mainly relating to language subjects, school books are not approved or prescribed by my Department at first or second level. Decisions on which books to use are taken at school level. Many schools operate book rental schemes and second-hand book exchanges. I consider locally-operated schemes to be the appropriate and efficient way to address this issue. School authorities have been advised that books should be changed only to the extent that is absolutely necessary. Syllabus planners are conscious of the need to avoid over frequent changes, primarily in order to minimise increases in the cost burden for parents. However, textbooks have to be changed periodically to enable teachers to keep their own and their students' work educationally stimulating and to ensure that content and methodology are kept up to date.
I am satisfied that the problem of disposal of unwanted textbooks is minimised to the greatest extent possible by the policies operated by my Department. My Department operates a grant scheme towards the cost of providing school textbooks for pupils from low-income families in schools at first and second level. For the purposes of these grants, a needy pupil is a pupil from a family where there is genuine hardship because of unemployment, prolonged illness of a parent, large family size with inadequate means, single parenthood, or other family circumstances, such as substance abuse, which would indicate a similar degree of financial hardship. Principal teachers administer the book grant schemes in schools in a flexible way under the terms of the schemes based on their knowledge of particular circumstances in individual cases.