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Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 14 February 2013

Thursday, 14 February 2013

Questions (181)

Nicky McFadden

Question:

181. Deputy Nicky McFadden asked the Minister for Education and Skills in view of a recent survey which estimates back to school costs at €487 for primary school children and €620 for secondary school students, the practical steps that could be taken to reduce back to school costs, particularly in the areas of school uniforms, books and voluntary contributions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7971/13]

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Written answers

Tackling the costs associated with school is a major priority of mine and there are practical steps that schools can take to reduce these costs for parents.

One such step is the establishment of Textbook Rental Schemes by schools. I am very much in favour of schools establishing such schemes. Schools that have such rental schemes can save parents up to 80% of the cost of buying new books. Because of this, I launched "Guidelines for Developing Textbook Rental Schemes in Schools" on 28 January 2013. The Guidelines provide practical advice to primary and post-primary schools on how rental schemes can be established and operated.

These Guidelines along with a Guide for Parents to inform them of how the schemes operate and how parents can help schools to establish and run them are currently being sent out to every school in the country and are also available on my Department's website. They were also made available for the websites of both national parents' councils, Barnardos and the society of St Vincent de Paul.

In addition, I received a commitment from the Irish Educational Publishers Association to limit the publication of new editions of textbooks and to maintain editions of books in print, unchanged for at least six years. The publishers have assured me that they would sell books for rental schemes to schools at substantial discounts. Furthermore, I have once again secured protection of the budget for school book grants at €15 million in 2013. I have previously put on the record of this House my support for any measures that can be put in place to reduce uniform costs for parents including measures such as the use of generic type uniforms or the use of "sew on" crests.

I have raised this matter informally with the National Parents Council at primary level and I recommended that the National Parents Councils – Primary and Post Primary mobilise parents associations to raise this issue with school authorities. It is important that schools are sensitive to the financial pressures on parents in making decisions, not just about school uniforms but about any matter that has cost implications for parents. The position in relation to voluntary contributions is that the charging of fees by a school is permissible only in the case of recognised fee-charging second level schools.

All other recognised schools are precluded from charging school fees. Voluntary contributions by parents of pupils in such recognised schools are permissible provided it is made absolutely clear to parents that there is no question of compulsion to pay and that, in making a contribution, they are doing so of their own volition. The manner in which such voluntary contributions are sought and collected is a matter for school management; however their collection should be such as not to create a situation where either parents or pupils could reasonably infer that the contributions take on a compulsory character.

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