Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 19 July 2012
190 Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Education and Skills the number of schools that have put in place book rental schemes in 2011-2012 compared to 2010-2011; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36319/12]
View answerFor the first time ever, my Department undertook a survey of schools to establish the position regarding school book rental and loan schemes for the school year 2011/12 and their plans to operate such a scheme for 2012/13. This survey was completed in early 2012.
The 3300 primary and special schools nationwide were asked in their annual returns to my Department if they operated a textbook or loan scheme in 2011/12 to enable pupils to rent or borrow some or all of their main books. Approximately 99% of the schools responded and 2519 schools, which represents 76% of primary schools, stated that they operated such a scheme.
The results at second level were not as conclusive, as only 44% of the 723 post-primary schools responded to the question in a separate survey. The number of post-primary which had a textbook rental scheme was 230.
My Department does not have the data available for the school year 2010/11, as requested by the Deputy.
