Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 October 2013
80. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he will instruct his Department to issue a circular to schools urging them to shop around and use more affordable textbooks; his views on whether failure to do this is contributing to excessive costs for parents of school-going children; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43548/13]
View answer81. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he will introduce an approval system by his Department for school textbooks that reach a certain standard of quality, similar to approval systems used for food products, restaurants, accommodation and so on; his views on whether such a development would be good for competition and would help drive down prices for parents as it would give new entrants to the textbook publishing market an opportunity to show that their products have reached the required standard and thereby reassure teachers deciding on which book to choose for their class that the new entrants' products are of adequate standard; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43549/13]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 80 and 81together.
Educational book publishers are independent private companies not under the direct control of the Department. I have no powers to regulate the textbook market, as suggested by the Deputy.
Apart from a small number of prescribed texts at second-level, mainly in the case of language subjects, decisions on textbooks are taken at school level. I agree with the Deputy that schools should seriously consider the cost of textbooks when deciding which ones to use. I have encouraged schools to adopt a more cost-conscious approach to the selection of books in their classes.
As the Deputy may be aware I launched "Guidelines for Developing Textbook Rental Schemes in Schools" on the 28th January last.
These Guidelines provide practical advice to primary and post-primary schools on how rental schemes can be established and operated. The aim of the Guidelines is to help as many schools as possible to start such book rental programmes.
The publication of these Guidelines followed a survey of schools conducted in 2011 by the Department. This had a 99% response rate at primary level, and showed that 76% of primary schools operate a book rental scheme. At second level, the response rate was lower, at 44%. Of those which did respond, 88% of those in the VEC sector and 73% of those in the Community & Comprehensive sector operated a book rental scheme.
I believe these results show that we have a good foundation to build on across the country. I hope that schools that are not yet operating book rental schemes will be encouraged to use the Guidelines to introduce them. If they do, it will result in substantial savings for parents. Schools which already have rental schemes can save parents up to 80% of the cost of buying new books.
A special "Guide for Parents" was also published, to inform them of how the schemes operate and how parents can help schools to establish and run them. I have been very clear in my support for book rental schemes. All of us who are parents know how expensive textbooks can be and what a burden it places on already hard pressed families at the start of every school year.
I am pleased to see the high level of book rental schemes in operation at primary level and I believe that these Guidelines will encourage this practice across all schools in our education landscape.
I also published a Report on Textbook Rental Schemes in Schools and the Allocation of Textbook Grants by the Department of Education & Skills in May 2012. This report presented four policy options to encourage schools to establish textbook rental schemes. None of the options are ideal, each one involves a trade-off of advantages and disadvantages.The Department will collect information on the number of schools operating book rental schemes this year as part of the annual enrolment data returns from primary and post-primary schools.
I will continue to monitor the number of schools operating book rental schemes, and if it proves necessary consider further steps to encourage schools to do so.
